CHINA HEALTH SCIENCES NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3 , No.19 - July 24, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Beijing to Build Modern Pharmaceutical Logistics Distribution Center
- Guangzhou Plans China's Biggest Animal Breeding Center for Pharmaceutical Experiments
- China Launches US-sponsored Anti-HIV Program
- New "Fusion Inhibitor" Drug Offers AIDS Lifeline
- Program Launched to Combat Birth Defects
- Chinese Medicine Favored by Germans
- Beijing to Host International Bioscientist Conference
Beijing to Build Modern Pharmaceutical Logistics Distribution Center
An agreement was recently signed between Beijing Pharmaceutical Company (BPC) and Siemens Dematic to build a modern pharmaceutical logistics distribution center in Beijing.
Beijing Pharmaceutical Company, one of China's biggest Pharmaceutical enterprises involved in the manufacture, wholesale and retail of pharmaceuticals, will receive the logistics system for its distribution center from Siemens Dematic the world's leading automated logistics system supplier.
The deal which is worth RMB 30 million (US $3.6 million) will allow BPC's entire distribution process, from storage to delivery, to be completely automated while increasing the accuracy and efficiency of the distribution process.
The pharmaceutical retailing market has grown rapidly in China since the Chinese government initiated health care reforms to comply with China's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession and to break the monopoly of drug dispensing by hospital pharmacies. The retail market has also grown with people spending more on health-promotion products.
But competition in the drug retailing business will become even fiercer after foreign drug retailers are allowed to enter the domestic market next year, under China's WTO commitments.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Guangzhou Plans China's Biggest Animal Breeding Center for Pharmaceutical Experiments
An pharmaceutical institute in the southern China's city of Guangzhou plans to turn its beagle breeding center into the country's largest next year, capable of breeding 8,000 dogs annually for experiments.
A spokesman for the Guangzhou Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry said the center, which currently raises 800 beagles each year for pharmaceutical experiments, would then become biggest animal breeding center in China.
The breeding center has been designated by the World Health Organization as its first choice for dogs required for the safety assessment of new drugs, foods, farm chemicals and cosmetics.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
China Launches US-sponsored Anti-HIV Program
An anti-HIV/AIDS research program sponsored by the United States health authorities was recently launched in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, northwest China.
A total of 500 HIV negative intravenous drug addicts will be chosen to take part in the trial, which plans to supply various preventative medicines, according to sources in the local public health department.
The program involves an investment of US $1 million and equipment valued at US $400,000 in the first year.
The program is also being conducted in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China.
(Source: China Daily)
New "Fusion Inhibitor" Drug Offers AIDS Lifeline
A revolutionary AIDS drug that stops the HIV virus from entering cells may offer new hope to thousands of patients resistant to current therapies.
Data recently released by drug manufacturers Roche Holding AG of Switzerland and US biotech firm Trimeris Inc showed the injectable drug T-20, decreased the level of the virus found in the blood of many HIV patients running out of treatment options.
T-20, which could reach the market in the first quarter of 2003, is the first in a novel class of medicines known as "fusion inhibitors" that work in a completely new way to combat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Of the 16 currently approved AIDS medicines, all attack the HIV virus only after it has entered a human cell. Results of two clinical trials released at the world AIDS conference showed twice as many patients achieved a reduction in the level of HIV in their blood to undetectable levels when taking T-20 plus older drugs compared to those given conventional therapy alone.
"(The data) is remarkable and far better than expected", said Dr Bonaventura Clotet of the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol in Barcelona, a leading researcher in the trial, noting that the patients involved were resistant to conventional medicines.
(Source: China Daily)
Program Launched to Combat Birth Defects
China has begun an eight-year program to lower the prevalence of birth defects and disabilities through health education campaigns and preventive measures targeting at-risk groups.
The Ministry of Health together with the China Disabled Persons Federation jointly announced the programs as part of the nation's 2002-10 plan for the improvement of infant health and the decrease of birth defects and disabilities.
The plan urges public health departments to work with mass media, schools, communities and institutions to educate the public on healthy birth practices, particularly couples of childbearing age, as well as their families.
Education on various preventative measures, such as pre-natal check-ups and improved nutrition, will be undertaken to prevent birth defects and disabilities.
In China, approximately 4 to 6% or 800,000 to 1.2 million infants suffer from various types of newborn defects and deformities annually. Birth defects have now become the main cause of infant mortality.
The most prevalent infant birth defects in China include cleft lip, neural tube defect, polydactyly (having more than the normal number of fingers or toes), congenital heart anomalies, and hydrocephaly (an accumulation of fluid in the cranium), said Li Zhu, an expert with the Institute of Reproductive and Child Health at Peking University.
Insufficient iodine and folic acid in pregnant mothers' daily diets, marriage among close relatives that still occurs in some remote areas and exposure to poisonous and harmful environments during pregnancy all contribute to the high rates of birth defects and disabilities.
(Source: China Daily)
Chinese Medicine Favored by Germans
Angelika Affeldt, a mother of two children, had seen many doctors for her iritis (inflammation of the iris of the eye) and severe headache caused by it before she came to the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Clinic in Koetzting in southern Germany, as "the last resort" at the end of last year.
After only six months of TCM treatment, Ms. Affeldt found her illness had been drastically alleviated. "I can read and drive again," she said. She was even expecting to return to the job she had to quit because of the illness.
Since many people in Ms. Affeldt's position have had little relief from conventional western medicine and coupled with concerns about side-effects from the use of some conventional medicines, more and more German patients have come to choose Chinese medicine clinics in recent years. A series of therapies by traditional Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, Tuina and herbal medicine, are easing the sufferings of millions of Germans.
German TCM institutions statistics show that Germany has 50, 000 or one-sixth of its doctors treating patients with Chinese medicine, and more than 2 million patients see Chinese medicine doctors every year.
With a large-scale study on the curative effect of acupuncture being conducted nationwide at a cost of some 10 million euros (US $9.5 million) and involving thousands of TCM doctors and patients, the study should be completed within two years. But initial results have already shown the positive effect of acupunctural treatment, said Stephan Hager, participant of the study and head of the Koetzting TCM Clinic.
(Source: eastday.com)
Beijing to Host International Bioscientist Conference
More than 1,000 leading international scientists in the field of life sciences will be invited to a symposium to be held in Beijing next year to discuss how to improve people's lives through scientific progress.
The 10th International Symposium of the Society for Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA) aims to promote understanding of the molecular basis of human health, and to enhance the progress of genomics, proteomics and biotechnology, an organizer of the meeting announced.
Major topics to be discussed during the meeting, scheduled between August 16 and 20, 2003, will include stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, genomics, bioinformatics, gene therapy, cancer research, HIV/AIDS vaccination and current therapy and biological terrorism, the organizer said.
It is hoped that the symposium will help promote Chinese bioscience and biotechnology on the world stage.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
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