Is China’s old pharma too complex to simplify?

CHINA has long promoted its traditional medicinal system as a national treasure and more recently as a tool of soft power. While the ancient art remains a policy priority, however, it faces very modern challenges including rising costs, complexities of production and treatment, and murky intellectual property rights.

Chinese medicine practitioners have been treating patients with herbal medicine and acupuncture around the globe, from the Czech Republic to South Sudan. In China, half the items covered by public health insurance come from the traditional canon. Such products account for more than 40% of the US$280bil pharmaceutical market, the second largest in the world.