CHINA HEALTH SCIENCES NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 , No.16 - July 3, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Senile Dementia Starts in Youth: Experts
- Chinese Health Products Move Into Foreign Markets
- Tax Policy Bid to Lure Capital in Drug Sector
- China's Drug Retailers Rise to Foreign Challenge
- China Likely a Major Driving Force in Asian Biotech Industry
- Food Safety Network in the Pipeline
- China Officials Reject AIDS Report
- U.S. Awards China $14M to Fight AIDS
Senile Dementia Starts in Youth: Experts
Most people believe forgetfulness is merely a symptom of old age, something you can not help.
However, experts warn that poor memory normally foreshadows certain diseases -- in the worst, but not the least cases, senile dementia.
Four percent of the forgetful fifty-something -- who account for 70 percent of their age group -- are suffering from senile dementia, said sources attending an international seminar on amnesia and senile dementia in the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Experts have also found senile dementia makes up a half of all the mental disturbances affecting 10 percent of those above 65.
Treatment of senile dementia was recognized by scientists worldwide as difficult, said Dr. Ericsson, a world-renowned neurologist and the personal doctor of former US President Ronald Reagan.
Ericsson now leads the largest medical and biological center in the United States, Texas Medical Center, which has a long history of research in senile dementia.
Western medical scientists had made no major breakthroughs in senile dementia treatment and the best they could do was to prevent the disease from worsening, said Ericsson, who believes a better solution may lie in traditional Chinese medicine.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Chinese Health Products Move Into Foreign Markets
As more Chinese begin to take dietary supplements, such as fish oil and vitamins, traditional Chinese health products are finding new overseas markets.
Liu Guo'en, a pharmaceutical expert with the North Carolina University of the United States, applauded traditional Chinese medicine's emergence in the international market in the form of dietary supplements.
Traditional Chinese medicine was not easily accepted in overseas markets because its theoretical system was completely different from that of Western medicine. Therefore, scientific scrutiny, including quantitative and qualitative analysis as applied to Western medicine, was not applicable to Chinese medicine, said Liu.
Compared to common drugs, herbal health foods were much more likely to be passed by the US Food and Drug Administration, which would facilitate their entry into foreign markets.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Tax Policy Bid to Lure Capital in Drug Sector
China is mulling a more favorable taxation policy to encourage capital inflows into the country's pharmaceutical industry, a senior official said last Thursday.
The Ministry of Science and Technology and other government departments are considering reducing or even exempting tax for developers of new drugs, a hot investment area.
Helping to spearhead the future of the pharmaceutical sector are the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.
Taxation policy support will form a central plank in the strategy. It will form part of the consulting work the Ministry of Science and Technology plans to do with other State departments, Li said.
Policies in favor of Chinese herbal drugs development will also be considered, said Lin Xin, another division head with the ministry's Law and Regulation Department.
The Ministry of Science and Technology consulted the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, Lin said, but further discussion is apparently needed.
(Source: China Daily)
China's Drug Retailers Rise to Foreign Challenge
Chinese pharmacies are undergoing a dramatic transformation as the retail medicine market prepares to open to foreign competition from January 1, 2003.
More and more Chinese patients are willing to buy medicines in convenient drugstores instead of taking the trouble to register and queue in hospitals. Meanwhile, a large number of wholesalers have also plunged into retailing due to the high returns.
Experts consider that these two factors have contributed to the rapid growth of China's medicine retail industry, in which chainstores are playing an increasingly important role.
Statistics show that China now has 196 pharmaceutical enterprises with chainstores, reporting an annual sales volume of nearly 8 billion yuan (967 million US dollars).
Experts predict that with advanced information technologies, supply chains and retail management, foreign pharmacies or joint ventures will snatch a considerable market share from domestic medicine retailers after they enter the Chinese market.
Besides medicines, medical equipment also sells well in China's drugstores. Insiders figure that the sales volume of medical equipment will keep a growth rate of 12 percent in the next three to five years.
(Source: China Daily)
China Likely a Major Driving Force in Asian Biotech Industry
China is likely to become a major driving force in the biotechnology industry in Asia, an international forum was told at its opening in Taiwan this Monday.
Experts from the world-renowned biotech periodical Nature told the forum that the biotechnology industry in Asia was generally weak in infrastructure and development capacity, but China was likely to become one of major driving forces in the industry in this region.
They said that China was potentially the largest pharmaceutical market in Asia, and it was strong in pharmaceutical research.
The three-day forum focused on applied science and technology in the biotech industry, including the development of Chinese herbal medicine, and the release of the latest information.
Participants included representatives from Nature and experts from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(Source: China Daily)
Food Safety Network in the Pipeline
A national food testing network will be set up by 2005 to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply, sources from the Ministry of Science and Technology said this week.
According to the blueprint, the government is planning to build two or three national food safety centers, which are required to meet the standards of an advanced international laboratory.
Meanwhile, about 450 national testing laboratories for food safety are going to be constructed and included in the network.
Among them, about 40 will be chosen to join in testing with international laboratories.
The ministry revealed a blueprint that will require an investment of about 150 million yuan (US$18 million). The new system is also believed to be well suited to handle the constantly evolving challenges brought on by China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(Source: China Daily)
China Officials Reject AIDS Report
Health officials last month rejected a United Nations report criticizing the government for not doing enough to steer China away from an AIDS epidemic.
The study, "HIV/AIDS: China's Titanic Peril," said China is on the brink of an "explosive" AIDS epidemic and could have 10 million infected people by the end of the decade.
"I think the information they have is not sufficient and cannot be fully trusted," said Sun Xinhua, division chief of disease control for the Ministry of Health.
The 89-page U.N. report cited an "insufficient political commitment" and a "scarcity of effective policies" as undermining efforts against the disease in this country of 1.3 billion. It said awareness about prevention had made "little progress in China." It recommended that the Chinese government spend more on widespread education and prevention, and talk more openly about the disease to encourage testing and treatment.
Wang Liji, division chief of international cooperation for the Ministry of Health, called the conclusions and predictions inaccurate.
"The situation of AIDS control in China should be analyzed and understood from different angles. Unfortunately, U.N. officials saw this issue only from their own angle," Wang said. He said the ministry had not seen a copy of the report and had not responded officially.
Siri Tellier, chairwoman of the U.N. Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, which prepared the report, said it was not meant as a criticism.
"It would be a complete mistake to think that this report is saying that China has not done a lot to slow the spread of this terrible disease. It has done a great deal. But it's not enough," Tellier said.
"The Ministry of Health alone cannot bear the burden," she said. "Our main message is that others - including the U.N., the public, the media - have to do more."
Last year, there were 30,736 confirmed infections in China although government estimates put the number closer to 850,000. That figure is up from the previous official estimate of 600,000.
But the U.N. estimates number of people carrying the AIDS virus to be at least 800,000 and as high as 1.5 million - most of them infected through intravenous drug use or poor sanitation in China's blood-buying industry.
If no effort is made to step up prevention and education, the number could jump to 10 million by 2010.
China is "on the verge of a catastrophe that could result in unimaginable suffering, economic loss and social devastation," the report said.
Last year, the Chinese government outlined its AIDS strategies until 2005, including more emphasis on blood safety and greater care and counseling for infected people.
The government also increased its annual budget for prevention and care from less than $2 million to $12 million for the five years.
"The Chinese five-year plan continues to present HIV/AIDS as a medical problem, and fails to understand the epidemic as a broader development issue," the U.N. report said.
For example, the report said, one U.N. goal is to ensure that, by 2005, at least 90 percent of young Chinese would have access to information and services necessary to prevent infection. The Chinese plan's goal for the same period is to reach 45 percent of the rural population and 75 percent of the urban population.
Sun said the government has sent employees throughout the country to promote AIDS control and has launched sex-education programs for migrant workers, who are particularly vulnerable to infections. More information has also been included in textbooks, Sun said.
"We have already done what we should do," he said. "But it's a long-term program, and the progress cannot be seen in a short time."
In April, state media reported that intravenous drug use accounted for 68 percent of infections, while blood selling accounted for 9.7 percent.
That was the most specific official estimate yet of people infected by China's blood-buying industry, blamed for spreading the virus to thousands of poor, rural villagers.
Collectors bought blood from villagers, pooled it and extracted plasma - the liquid part of the blood sought for medical uses. They then reinjected the blood back into the sellers, apparently to limit their blood loss.
(Source: Associated Press Online)
U.S. Awards China $14M to Fight AIDS
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is awarding Chinese scientists a $14.8 million grant to expand AIDS research.
The grant announcement came a day after a United Nations report said China is on the brink of an explosive AIDS epidemic that could leave 10 million people infected by the end of the decade. Tommy Thompson, the U.S. health secretary, signed an agreement with China's health minister, Zhang Wenkang, on Friday to promote U.S.-Chinese cooperation in researching ways to prevent and treat the AIDS virus.
Part of that cooperation includes searching for ways to increase the safety of China's blood supply and improve HIV testing - two specific recommendations of the U.N. report.
In addition, Thompson announced the five-year NIH grant, which will fund studies of HIV's spread and programs to prevent it in the Yunnan and Shanxi provinces. Part of the money will go to studies of AIDS drugs and development of vaccines, research to be conducted in scientific labs throughout China.
The NIH grant is part of a program that strengthens HIV research in countries where the virus is spreading rapidly.
(Source: Associated Press Online)
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