China Seeks to Unlock Secrets of Herbs, Roots
(Reuters)
- Chinese legends have long extolled the benefits of the Tian Shan Xue
Lian, a rare white flower found in snowcapped mountains that is revered
as a panacea, an elixir so powerful it can supposedly bring the dead
back to life.
In
the quest for better and newer drugs, scientists in China are
re-examining traditional Chinese medicines TCM.L -- roots and herbs that
have been used for thousands of years -- to find and reproduce the
active ingredients so they may be made into drugs that can be easily
manufactured and consumed.
But
unlike many Chinese drugmakers who already sell TCMs in powders and
capsules, scientists are going a step further by putting these
experimental medicines through rigorous clinical tests so that they may
find wider acceptance globally.
"This
flower has been used for thousands of years in Xinjiang, Tibet and
India to treat a range of illnesses...For the Chinese, it was used for
'disorderly heartbeat,'" said Li Guirong, a cardiology professor at the
University of Hong Kong.
"I
have worked eight years on this. Our aim is to return an irregular
heart rhythm to normalcy...with a drug that has fewer side effects," he
said.
As
Beijing shifts its growth engine to cleaner hi-tech industries,
committing $1.7 trillion over the next five years to nurture them,
Chinese scientists are enjoying unprecedented government support and
access to funding to design better drugs and diagnostic tools for
chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.
Backed
by government funding, Li and colleagues at the Shanghai Institute of
Materia Medica began studying eight years ago the Tian Shan Xue Lian, or
Herba Saussureae Involucratae, which thrives 3,000 metres above sea
level in the Tibetan highlands.
They
extracted its key ingredient, acacetin, created its synthetic twin and
found success in experiments on dogs with atrial fibrillation.
They
are now refining the compound and hope to begin human trials in three
years with China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp , parent of the
country's largest Hong Kong-listed drug distributor Sinopharm Group Co
Ltd (1099.HK).
"We
received a patent for it (acacetin) and hope to make it into a drug
together with Sinopharm. We hope to market it in China and
internationally eventually," Li said.
While
TCM has been used for thousands of years, it is far less understood and
accepted outside of China. By subjecting TCM-derived compounds to
clinical trials, experts hope to prove their efficacy and sell them into
foreign markets.
FLUSH WITH CASH
Coinciding
with China's push to upgrade its domestic drug sector, Western
drugmakers are muscling into China to maintain margins amid a patent
cliff and fall in earnings in Western markets.
In
the last two months alone, Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N), Pfizer Inc
(PFE.N) and Astrazeneca Plc (AZN.L), have announced ambitious research
plans with Chinese companies to design new drugs for Chinese patients
and also announced plans to expand their distribution grids.
The
reason is simple: China's prescription drug market, set to be the
world's second largest by 2020, is estimated to be worth more than $110
billion by 2015, from $50 billion in 2010, according to various industry
researchers.
While
much attention is paid to what Western drugmakers are doing in China,
insiders say significant resources are quietly being directed to TCM
research and the best TCM drugs will eventually figure among the world's
prescription medicines.
In
the last two years, the government has allotted 6.7 billion yuan to
support biotechnology companies and the search for new drugs.
Apart
from Sinopharm, which aims to compete globally with quality and
well-accepted drugs, other notable TCM producers are Yunnan Baiyao Group
Co Ltd (000538.SZ), which makes an anti-bleeding powder, Zhangzhou
Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (600436.SS) and Jiangsu Hengruli
Medicine Co Ltd (600276.SS), all keen to put more resources into R&D
over the next five years.
Beijing
Tongrentang Co Ltd (600085.SS) will focus on developing products using
rare raw materials that have strong medicinal qualities, while China
Shineway Pharmaceutical Group Ltd (2877.HK) will give priority to
state-protected and patented Chinese medicines.
This
reverse approach -- working backwards with proven TCMs to find the
active compound -- has been encouraged by China's best-known medical
export, the anti-malaria drug artemisinin.
Artemisinin
is derived from the sweet wormwood shrub, which has been used for
thousands of years to treat malaria. A project by the Chinese army in
the 1960s managed to isolate the active compound and it has since become
the world's best line of defence against the disease.
"We
will see a rebalancing away from what was an exclusive focus on Western
chemical drugs to include more traditional Chinese medicines," said
Jason Mann, pharmaceuticals and healthcare analyst with Barclays Capital
in Hong Kong.
"The
Chinese government is supporting TCM. It is a key heritage; something
to be proud of. Five thousand years of history can't all be wrong. And
it is just pragmatic. These are difficult, expensive diseases. Whatever
approach you can take to keep patients healthy and out of hospital will
be good."
