The traditional Chinese medicine industry welcomes policy benefits and development opportunities

In the first half of this year, a number of favorable pharmaceutical policies were introduced one after another. In addition to the "Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Service Development Plan (2015—2020)" and the "Chinese Medicinal Materials Protection and Development Plan (2015—2020)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") issued by the central government, local governments also followed suit. Yunnan introduced new policies to promote the development of the traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine industries, and Guizhou Province also introduced relevant policies to increase support for the development of Miao medicine. Among them, the notice on the "Chinese Medicinal Materials Protection and Development Plan" was jointly issued by more than ten departments including the General Office of the State Council, and is China's first national-level special plan for the protection and development of Chinese medicinal materials.

This is China's first national-level special plan for the protection and development of Chinese medicinal materials. The "Plan" makes plans through 2020 in multiple fields including technology, circulation, and financial support, and clearly proposes to focus on building cultivation and breeding bases for 100 endangered and scarce Chinese medicinal materials, including Cordyceps sinensis. For enterprises engaged in the development and deep processing of Cordyceps sinensis, this is undoubtedly a major benefit.

Chinese medicinal materials are the material foundation for the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese medicine and are strategic resources related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Protecting and developing Chinese medicinal materials is of great significance for deepening the reform of the medical and health system, improving people's health, developing strategic emerging industries, increasing farmers' income, and promoting ecological civilization construction.

However, the protection and development of Chinese medicinal materials in China is facing severe challenges. On the one hand, due to the reduction of land resources and the deterioration of the ecological environment, some wild Chinese medicinal material resources have been lost or exhausted, and the problem of shortage in the supply of Chinese medicinal materials has become increasingly prominent. On the other hand, the production of Chinese medicinal materials is relatively backward, and the abuse of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and growth regulators is relatively common, resulting in a decline in the quality of Chinese medicinal materials, affecting the quality of traditional Chinese medicine and clinical efficacy, and damaging the reputation of traditional Chinese medicine. In addition, the production and operation management of Chinese medicinal materials is relatively extensive, the exchange of supply and demand information is poor, and price fluctuations are too large, which also hinders the healthy development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry.

The "Plan" emphasizes that special breeding bases should be built for endangered and scarce Chinese medicinal materials. It focuses on building wild tending bases for 100 endangered and scarce Chinese medicinal materials such as musk, agarwood, Cordyceps sinensis, and Dendrobium. At the same time, it is also necessary to focus on developing important mechanized production and modern processing technologies to improve the modern production level of Chinese medicinal materials.

Policy benefits bring new opportunities for the development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry, especially for endangered and scarce Chinese medicinal materials. In these subdivided fields of endangered and scarce Chinese medicinal materials, Cordyceps sinensis currently cannot be artificially cultivated and can only grow on its own in plateau areas with suitable temperature, humidity, and fungal sources, thus making it even more precious, and its annual retained quantity is also a relatively stable value. In addition, deep processing of Cordyceps sinensis has become an industry development trend. Its deep processing has two directions: one is to use it as a single raw material for deep processing, such as Qinghai Spring's Jicao lozenges; the other is to combine Cordyceps sinensis with other medicinal materials for deep processing, including Inner Mongolia Furui Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd.'s Compound Biejia Ruangan Tablets and Jiangzhong Pharmaceutical's Shenlingcao Oral Liquid.

The industry predicts that the Cordyceps sinensis industry will usher in a great opportunity for market explosion in the future, especially as the advancement of deep processing of Cordyceps sinensis is the main driving force for the industry's future growth. Some traditional Chinese medicine industry analysts predict that by 2018, China's Cordyceps product market sales will exceed 65 billion yuan, and the average annual growth rate will remain above 10%. As the proportion of the deep processing industry continues to increase, the growth rate of the deep processing industry scale in the next 5—10 years will be around 20%.

Not only that, under the background of favorable policies and a blue ocean market, leading deep processing enterprises will inevitably benefit first. At present, Qinghai Spring, as the only leading enterprise in raw material deep processing in the Cordyceps sinensis field, has its representative product “Jicao 5X Cordyceps sinensis” pure powder tablet series products become the darling of the market. In the field of Cordyceps sinensis deep processing, Qinghai Spring is already in a class of its own.

While accelerating their own development, excellent leading enterprises will also enhance the transformation and upgrading of the entire Cordyceps sinensis industry and drive the healthy and stable development of the entire industry. In this process, because of the development of leading enterprises, relevant government management agencies will continuously adjust corresponding administrative management systems. While regulating industry and enterprise behavior, they also protect the development of related industries and enterprises, and will certainly play a beneficial role in promoting the development of the Cordyceps industry and even the entire traditional health industry.