英闻天下——367 TCM Goes to Global Market

 　　Nutrition Science Partners is set to begin the final phase of testing for a new drug based on a traditional Chinese medicine botanical to treat inflammatory bowel¹ disease.

 

　　The new partnership² has given Nestle Health Science access to a traditional Chinese medicine library of over 50,000 extracts from 1,200 different herbal plants.

 

　　Christian³ Hogg is the CEO of Hutchison China MediTech and general manager of Nutrition Science Partners.

 

　　"What we're doing is bringing global standard research and development methodologies and techniques to studying substances that have a long history of use in humans. Traditional Chinese Medicine is part of the social fabric⁴ in China. It is between 30 and 40 percent of all pharmaceutical⁵ sales in China. So what we're doing is bringing best practice, global screening technologies, and research and discovery activities to try to identify relevant therapies in the gastro-intestinal area."

 

　　The new drug, HMPL-004, is set for Phase Three trials in the US and Europe in the first quarter of this year.

 

　　If made available in the global market, it will be a drug that doctors prescribe to sufferers of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

 

　　Mr Hogg says that parallel to the development of HMPL-004 NSP plans to be an engine of innovation in the gastro-intestinal medical field:

 

　　"We want Nutrition Science Partners to be putting out new drug candidates or new medical food candidates on a regular basis. We are starting up a large R&D team to do this research and we'll have full access to the Hutchison Medi-Pharma Botanical substance library R&D platform."

 

　　Dr Karen Himlok is South African traditional Chinese medicine practitioner⁶ who practices in Beijing.

 

　　Many of Dr Himlok's patients are foreigners living in China.

 

　　She says that global accessibility of traditional Chinese medicine is on the rise:

 

　　"Back in the day people would have to take a formulation of herbs, go home and cook it for two hours and boil it up and drink this very bitter pungent⁷ tonic⁸ and now they've changed all of that. These things are available in a pill, or a capsule. When these herbs are being manufactured they are also going through inspection⁹ and hygiene¹⁰ protocols¹¹ so they are becoming safer. All over the world the profession has gone through quite a lot to improve the use of Chinese medicine. The only thing left really is to promote and have good practice."

 

　　Dr Himlok also says that Western patients have increasing interest in taking natural medicine alternatives.

 

　　For CRI, this is Alexandra Blucher.

1 bowel   

n.肠(尤指人肠)；内部，深处

参考例句：

• Irritable bowel syndrome seems to affect more women than men.女性比男性更易患肠易激综合征。
• Have you had a bowel movement today?你今天有排便吗？

2 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

5 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

6 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

7 pungent   

adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a pungent style.文章写得泼辣。
• Its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hideouts.它的刺激性气味会令恐怖分子窒息，迫使他们从藏身地点逃脱出来。

8 tonic   

n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的

参考例句：

• It will be marketed as a tonic for the elderly.这将作为老年人滋补品在市场上销售。
• Sea air is Nature's best tonic for mind and body.海上的空气是大自然赋予的对人们身心的最佳补品。

9 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

10 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

11 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网