Exploring overseas market of traditional Chinese Medicine

Headquartered in a classical traditional courtyard in Chongwenmen, Beijing, Tongrentang, a 300 year old pharmaceutical company, is stepping into the international market through traditional Chinese medicine "We hope to further expand the overseas market and plan to open 100 overseas stores in 2015." Ding Yongling, deputy general manager of Beijing Tongrentang (Group) Co., Ltd Tongrentang's overseas development began in 1993 So far, it has established 90 stores in 17 overseas countries and regions, all over the UK, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and other countries Through the establishment of a "medicine in one" branch overseas, the establishment of a small museum, as well as cooperation with Confucius Institute overseas to conduct lectures and free clinics on traditional Chinese medicine, the concept and culture of traditional Chinese medicine will be spread and overseas customers' trust in traditional Chinese medicine will be enhanced "Tongrentang's development benefits from the growing demand for traditional Chinese medicine in the international market and its wider recognition." Ding Yongling said Tongrentang's success is a microcosm of traditional Chinese medicine's overseas market exploration In recent years, the export of traditional Chinese medicine has steadily increased According to the statistics of China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of medicine and health care products, the export of traditional Chinese medicine in the first three quarters of 2013 reached 2.27 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.11% year on year In addition to Tongrentang, a time-honored enterprise, many traditional Chinese medicine enterprises also began to explore their own overseas development model Tianjin Tianshili Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd actively promotes the international certification of modern Chinese medicine The compound Danshen Dropping Pill declared by Tianjin Tianshili Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd has successfully passed the second phase clinical trial of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and entered the third phase clinical trial stage Dai Biao, general manager of Tianshili international marketing Holding Co., Ltd., believes that it is one of the important ways to improve the international competitiveness of traditional Chinese medicine to integrate traditional Chinese medicine with the drug standards of the international mainstream market and list it with registered drugs According to Dai Biao, there are many difficulties in the second phase clinical trial of the US FDA, mainly due to the distrust of traditional Chinese medicine by doctors, patients and medical insurance companies participating in the local trial In order to fully prove the effectiveness and safety of the drug, they increased the samples of the second phase test from 90 cases to 120 cases On the basis of these successful cases, the third phase test was very smooth and they were very confident to pass In recent years, the enthusiasm of Chinese traditional medicine enterprises to register drugs in the international mainstream market is increasing In March 2012, the "Di'ao Xinxuekang capsule" produced by Chengdu Di'ao Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd passed the Dutch drug registration with therapeutic drugs, realizing the breakthrough of EU registration zero In 2013, the traditional Chinese medicine product Fuzheng Huayu tablet of Shanghai Modern Chinese Medicine Co., Ltd passed the United States The second phase clinical trial of FDA Liu Zhanglin, vice president of China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of healthcare products, believes that this trend is the only way for the long-term development of the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine However, he also points out that there is still a long way to go before traditional Chinese medicine can be recognized in the international market as it is in China "The export of traditional Chinese medicine is different from the export of general commodities It is subject to the restrictions of local medical laws and regulations Every country is different It is a huge project to let Chinese medicine products enter each overseas market one by one Few pharmaceutical companies can bear the high cost of drug research and development and registration " Liu Zhanglin said Tongrentang is also facing the problem of identity authentication when it pushes its traditional Chinese medicine products to the overseas market In Singapore, Australia and other countries, traditional Chinese medicine is sold as a drug, while in Europe and the United States and other markets with high barriers to drug access, it is sold as a food or food supplement "We are demonstrating the drug registration in the mainstream market, and we believe that localization is also an effective way We can build factories in the United States and design our products according to FDA policies and product standards From purchasing, processing, manufacturing, the whole process is completed in the United States, which may take half the effort " Ding Yongling said In order to promote "going global" of traditional Chinese medicine, in April 2012, 14 departments including the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of traditional Chinese medicine jointly issued several opinions on promoting trade in traditional Chinese medicine services It is suggested that China will take about five years to establish a perfect management system of TCM service trade and a promotion system and international marketing system of TCM service trade guided by international market demand Ding Yongling believes that Tongrentang's international development can benefit from these measures "We hope to create a loose international environment for Chinese medicine enterprises to go out at the national level Only when the international environment is mature and we have sufficient say, can the problem of Chinese medicine service trade be solved." Ding Yongling said.