CCTV: Traditional Chinese Medicines Face Risk of Full Delisting from the European Union
January 30, 2023
Business Club April 8th According to CCTV April 4th China News Report: From April onwards, Chinese medicine is facing the risk of a complete withdrawal from the European Union, and 100,000 employees may be unemployed.
The EU is the largest vegetable medicine market in the world with annual sales of 10 billion euros. 7 years ago, the European Union issued the "Regulations on Registration Procedures for Traditional Plant Drugs," requiring all Chinese herbal medicine manufacturers that once imported food, health products, and even agricultural and sideline products to meet the registration standards before March 31, 2011. In the EU market. However, because of the high registration fees, it is impossible to prove that it has been sold in the EU for more than 15 years. Until today, no Chinese medicine company has completed registration. The most pressing concern for this is the operators of European Chinese medicine clinics and those who rely on Chinese medicine for treatment.
Zhou Xiaoming, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom, said that in the United Kingdom, Chinese medicine still has a relatively high level of recognition. There are more than 1,000 Chinese medicine clinics in the UK and the second largest industry for local Chinese. After the use of the existing inventory of traditional Chinese medicines, the United Kingdom ran out of food.
In addition to the 100,000 unemployment risks faced by the 100,000 Chinese medicine practitioners in Europe, domestic Chinese medicine companies have tried to apply for a legal identity through the standard registration to their drugs after they missed this simple registration. The cost will increase from 10 million yuan to 1 billion yuan. Yuan around.
At present, the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Chinese Medical and Health Products affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce of China is in the process of collective negotiation. It hopes that the EU can extend the transition period for simplified registration to 2019. It also hopes that the state will introduce relevant policies to push the Chinese medicine industry out of the country.
Background links
Prior to 2004, the EU had no relevant regulations for plant drugs. Each member state implemented different registration procedures and management methods. Most of the Chinese herbal medicines in the EU market are circulated in the form of food, health products, botanical raw materials or agricultural and sideline products. The differences in regulations among member states make it impossible for the quality, safety and effectiveness of medicines to obtain necessary guarantees, hinder the trade in these medicines in the Community, and lead to irregular competition among producers of these products, and also have an impact on public health protection. .
In 2004, the European Union adopted the European “Traditional Herbal Product Act” and requested that all unregistered traditional herbal products be withdrawn from the EU market from April 2011 onwards.
The European "Traditional Herbal Medicine Act" stipulates that traditional herbal medicines that have been used in EU member states for more than 30 years, or have been used for more than 15 years in EU member states and can be applied in countries and regions outside the EU for more than 30 years In order to be registered and registered, traditional herbal products are sold and used within the EU member states. Otherwise, the pharmaceutical manufacturer must conduct a series of experiments in pharmacology, pathology, and clinical practice to confirm that the drug meets the requirements of the European Union's pharmaceutical quality regulations.
However, due to the fact that most of the traditional Chinese medicines are compound drugs, the detection is very tedious, which makes it difficult to adapt to the European "Traditional Herbal Medicine Act."
