Singapore to push major Chinese Medicine research

Singapore to push major Chinese Medicine research

By Ruth Youngblood

SINGAPORE (DPA): The 34-year-old woman patiently waits for
hours at a Chinese medical clinic after years of Western
conception treatments failed to result in the baby she and her
husband so desperately want.

"I've been wanting to have a child for a long time," she said.
"Hopefully, this will work for me."

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) facilities are suddenly
surging in popularity among the young and better educated in
Singapore, where the field has become the target of a major
research push to plug the city-state into the fast-growing herbal
product market.

Practitioners acknowledge China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are far
ahead in TCM science and business inroads, but prospects of as
much as US$100 million in government funding have ignited hopes
for a strategic international niche.

At the Thong Chai Medical Institution, where practitioners are
coping with a surge of patients from about 400 a day a few months
ago to as many as 700, general manager Lee Siang attributed the
low demand for TCM in the past to the preponderance of Western-
trained physicians.

"We're all hoping the latest initiatives will be a success,"
said Lee. The 134-year-old TCM facility, the oldest in Singapore,
has extended its hours to cope with needs of patients seeking
help for everything from sprains, coughs and minor ailments to
serious conditions.

As for the woman desperate for a baby, Lee noted the facility
has a 20 percent success rate in treating infertility.

A task force formed by the Economic Development Board last
July to evaluate opportunities in the field has come up with a
$100 million proposal to plug Singapore into the TCM arena.

Dr. Cham Tao Soon, chairman of the task force and president of
Nanyang Technological University, is still seeking feedback
before finalizing the recommendations and submitting them to the
Biomedical Research Council by the end of the year.

"China and Taiwan are very advanced, and Hong Kong is also
moving very quickly," he observed. "Unless we do something, we
will be left far behind."

He sees Singapore as playing a "bridging role" between the
East and West in finding an appropriate methodology for measuring
the efficiency of TCM drugs that will be acceptable to mainstream
science.

Two main areas where Singapore can excel are quality control
and clinical trials of TCM drugs, particularly on formulations
and herbs imported from China, he said, noting trials borrowing
Western methods will have more credibility if carried out here.

Twenty-five research projects are in progress, and clinical
trials are soon to start on a TCM drug for lowering cholesterol.

Unlike China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, TCM is not yet taught at a
university or practiced in hospitals in Singapore.

TCM schools offer six-year diploma courses, and students can
complete part of their studies here before going to China to
complete a bachelor's or master's degree at a TCM university.

The establishment of the first TCM university program is among
the task force's recommendations. With TCM legislation passed
last year, practitioners say confidence is soaring and the
publicity surrounding the implementation of the new rules is
attracting many first-timers.

The latest of the regulations governs TCM's ready-to-use
forms, requiring labels in English and prohibiting effectiveness
claims for 19 illnesses, including cancer, impotency and
hypertension.

TCM practitioners must have credentials from recognized
schools and pass a qualifying exam. There are 1,800 TCM
practitioners in Singapore, and about 800 Chinese medicine and
herbal shops.

Products wrapped in gold, burgundy and green packages beckon
the converted and the curious at Eu Yan Sang's, the largest TCM
company in Singapore. The company also has 25 outlets in Malaysia
and 17 in Hong Kong.

Nostalgia pervades the flagship store, with plaques tracing
its history back 122 years.