China encourages TCM innovation

BEIJING - China will continue to push forward technological innovation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and plans to build more TCM labs and research centers in the near future, according to a statement from the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The administration highlighted the development of the TCM industry during the past five years and also promised to further promote TCM.

Wang Guoqiang, head of the administration, said in addition to the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine won by pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou in 2015, 41 TCM discoveries have won state science and technology awards since late 2012.

Over 400 ancient books on TCM have been edited and published during the past five years, Wang added.

According to figures provided by the administration last week, about 17.5 percent of all patients in China are treated with TCM.

As of September 2017, 20.4 million patients had been discharged from TCM hospitals, accounting for 15 percent of all discharged patients in the country, the administration said.

Currently, 67 percent of town-level and community health centers have TCM units, totaling more than 30,000. By September 2017, there were 45,800 TCM clinics across China.