Over 900 Traditional Chinese Medicine Items Patented by Foreign Countries; China's Share of the International Market Is Small
Introduction: From September 25 to 29, a research team jointly formed by the Traditional Chinese Medicine Division, the Protein Division and the Modern Chinese Medicine Division of the Medical and Biological Invention Examination Department of the Patent Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration came to Chongqing to conduct research on the traditional Chinese medicine industry.
What will save you, my traditional Chinese medicine patents
During this process, a set of data provided by the research team was shocking: China is a major country for Chinese herbal medicine, but more than 900 Chinese herbal medicine items have already been patented by foreign companies.
“Many traditional Chinese medicine formulas have been obtained by countries such as Japan and South Korea, Europe and the United States, and have been patented abroad and even within China.” A relevant person in charge of the Medical and Biological Invention Examination Department of the Patent Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration introduced that, taking Japan as an example, the prescriptions of its 210 kampo medicine preparations all come from China.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, at present, about 4 billion people around the world use Chinese herbal medicine to treat illnesses, and annual international sales of traditional Chinese medicine amount to 16 billion US dollars. In the face of this “big cake,” Japan gets 80%, South Korea gets 10%, India, Singapore and other countries get 7%, while China, as the “originator of traditional Chinese medicine,” has only 3%.
Chongqing is a major region for traditional Chinese medicine production, but there are only 25 patents for new traditional Chinese medicine products
In Chongqing, traditional Chinese medicine is a traditional advantageous industry of our city, and is also an important means for economic development and for farmers to increase their income and become prosperous in northeastern Chongqing and southeastern Chongqing.
According to Li Longyun, vice president of the Chongqing Academy of Chinese Materia Medica, with the launch in November last year of the project “Integrated Demonstration and Promotion of Efficient and High-Quality Cultivation, Extraction and Processing Technologies for Chongqing Genuine Medicinal Materials,” our city plans, within 3 years, to select medicinal material varieties such as Peucedanum praeruptorum, honeysuckle, Aucklandia lappa and Epimedium, and 34 standardized cultivation techniques, and to build 300,000 mu of demonstration bases for efficient and high-quality cultivation technologies for Chinese medicinal materials in more than 10 districts and counties including Xiushan.
A major region for traditional Chinese medicine production is not the same as a strong region for traditional Chinese medicine patents. Statistics from the Municipal Academy of Chinese Materia Medica show that from 2003 to now, the academy has applied for a total of 136 patents and has been granted 55. Among them, only 25 patents involve authorization for new traditional Chinese medicine products.
Li Longyun said that although the total number of patents has risen overall since 2008, patents involving new traditional Chinese medicine products are still relatively few, and the patent conversion rate is also relatively low.
Many medicines, few patents: three major obstacles on the road to intellectual property protection
Why are there many medicines but few patents? According to a relevant person in charge of the Municipal Intellectual Property Office, weak awareness of intellectual property protection, low capital investment and lack of core competitiveness are the three major obstacles on the road to patent protection for traditional Chinese medicine in Chongqing, and this is also a microcosm of the national traditional Chinese medicine industry.
Weak awareness of protection turns products into foreign money trees
The person in charge gave an example, saying that artemisinin is the only medicine in China included in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. Since it was successfully developed in 1978, it has saved tens of millions of malaria patients from death.
However, because China lacked awareness of intellectual property protection at the time, it published detailed information on artemisinin's chemical structure, efficacy and clinical data many times in academic journals and at international conferences. Within a few years, similar foreign products appeared one after another and were patented.
In the international market, annual sales of artemisinin and its derivatives amount to as much as 1.5 billion US dollars, but China's market share is less than 1%. “Native” Chinese medicinal materials have unexpectedly become money trees for foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Low capital investment: the “most generous” pharmaceutical enterprise invests only 3% of sales revenue
Take Chongqing Shian Pharmaceutical as an example. As one of the largest traditional Chinese medicine enterprises in Chongqing, last year the enterprise's sales revenue exceeded 500 million yuan. Among this, intellectual property investment was more than 16 million yuan, accounting for only 3% of sales revenue.
In fact, this already counts as “willing to spend money” among domestic pharmaceutical enterprises. The person in charge said that many pharmaceutical enterprises in developed foreign countries invest 10% of sales revenue in intellectual property. Compared with them, China's pharmaceutical enterprises still appear “stingy.”
Lack of core competitiveness and limited market space
Among the 68 patents concerning ginkgo, although only 4 were applied for by foreign entities, they cover almost all extraction process flows for ginkgo. This means that China's 64 patents involve only the “surface,” and the true core competitiveness is in the hands of others.
Mint is a traditional Chinese medicinal material in China. At present, a total of 16 patents have been applied for. China and foreign countries each have 8, evenly matched in quantity. But on closer analysis, foreign technical patents are mainly used in high-profit markets such as chewing gum, while China's patents are only for mint lotus root, mint tea and the like, with an extremely narrow market space.
The less the investment, the smaller the competitive strength; enterprises will fall into a vicious cycle
“The more reluctant one is to invest in intellectual property protection and core product research and development, the less one can compete with others. And the more backward one is, the less money one has to increase investment in this area.” Liu Junxiang, director of the Protein Division of the Medical and Biological Invention Examination Department of the Patent Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration, said that this affects not only enterprises, but in the long run also ordinary citizens.
If enterprises do not strengthen intellectual property protection, they will have no money for innovation and research and development. Not only will there be no more new medicines for citizens to choose from, but many “incurable diseases” will also not be conquered, affecting citizens' lives and health.
Strengthening intellectual property protection: the government plans to create geographical indications for traditional Chinese medicine
The government is working hard on how to strengthen intellectual property protection for traditional Chinese medicine. A few days ago, the Chongqing Municipal Government published the “Chongqing Intellectual Property Strategy Outline,” which, on the basis of the original policies, places greater emphasis on application and protection.
The Outline proposes that the creation of intellectual property serves application, and therefore greater stress is placed on quality, and creation is no longer purely for the pursuit of quantity. In terms of protection, efforts should be made to enhance the intellectual property protection capacity of market entities, help enterprises cultivate relevant talent, guide the conduct of overseas rights protection, and improve enterprises' initiative in responding to foreign-related intellectual property disputes and the success rate of rights protection. By 2020, the city's cumulative number of valid patents will reach 120,000, and the number of invention patents per 10,000 people will reach more than 6.
The Outline particularly points out that the Northeastern Chongqing Ecological Conservation and Development Area and the Southeastern Chongqing Ecological Protection and Development Area should, in accordance with their positioning as ecological function areas, main agricultural product production areas and biodiversity protection areas, vigorously develop geographical indications and the like in the field of the traditional Chinese medicine industry. For the intellectual property protection of traditional Chinese medicine, this is undoubtedly great news.