Traditional Chinese healthcare products are attracting more attention from around the world, but they require international clinical evaluation before they’ll find a ready international market, said Dr. Harry Genant, Chairman of the Osteoporosis Task Force of the World Health Organization in Beijing on Sunday.
At the China Forum on Healthcare Products, Dr. Genant said the US Synarc Company, the world’s largest imaging research institute had found in a multi-center clinical trial that some Chinese healthcare products were effective in increasing bone-density of osteoporosis patients.
Dr. Genant said products without appropriate clinical evaluation lacked scientific proof of their worth. This had become a major obstacle for such products and stopped them from being accepted for entry onto world markets.
Ma Jianwen, Chairman of Osteoporosis Fund of China Development Foundation for Science and Technology, said there were various types of bone-healthcare products in China of different qualities, but most of them had not passed clinical trials. Some products of poor quality had severely harmed the trust people had in such healthcare medications as a whole.
Dr. Zhang Yaoshen, a senior consultant of the Healthcare Product Evaluation Committee of China State Food & Drug Administration Bureau, said the government gave much attention to the safety of healthcare products, took measures to ensure the healthy development of the market and pave the way for Chinese traditional healthcare products to be available on world markets.
He stressed it was of importance to conduct a re-evaluation of such products.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2006)