BILLION KRONER MARKET: The Chinese know it, the Indians know it and the old American Indians knew it: the curative and healing effects of certain plants. But many producers in Asia cannot sell their products to the western world because herbal medicine has not been scientifically documented. A new Danish company will now help with the task. On a 100% scientific basis.
The human race has known for thousands of years that a large number of plants have medicinal properties. Today they are used in many countries in parallel with drugs which have been developed according Herbal medicine scientifically documented by Danish technology BILLION KRONER MARKET: The Chinese know it, the Indians know it and the old American Indians knew it: the curative and healing effects of certain plants. But many producers in Asia cannot sell their products to the western world because herbal medicine has not been scientifically documented. A new Danish company will now help with the task. On a 100% scientific basis. to methods the western world acknowledges. A collaboration between a number of institutions in Denmark has led to the establishment of a company which will help producers, and particularly Asian producers, of herbal medicines to gain approval for their products so they can be marketed in the western world. The partners in the company, who are located on Funen, will put the herbal medicine through scientific tests and clinical studies according to approved, western protocols.
“The aim is to support Asian companies seeking to market herbal medicines in the West,” says director Bjørn Petersen, TCM Denmark. TCM stands for Traditional Complementary Medicine. “TCM Denmark will do that by for example combining cutting edge biotech procedures and proteome technology with traditional herbal medicine. We have a number of core competencies which can refine and make herbal medicine more effective, as well as helping herbal medicine producers to align their products with the standards required to obtain product licences in Western Europe.”
TCM Denmark consists of seven Funen partners including Funen County, the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark. The collaboration covers all stages: research, pilot production, clinical studies, patents, production and approval to access the medical market in the EU. The first agreements between Chinese authorities and several Chinese producers of herbal medicines are now ready for signature.
Professor Peter Mose Larsen, who heads the Centre for Proteome Analysis at the University of Southern Denmark, has been especially interested in Chinese herbal medicine for several years. This has resulted in an agreement with Wang Li Jao Pharmaceuticals to modernise the antiviral herbal medicine Kegaan Liyan, which will be tested for possible use against SARS and a number of other diseases.
The collaboration will also involve Chinese producers sending medicinal plants to the Danish Institute for Agricultural Sciences which will handle the description and isolation of the active substances. At the Centre for Proteome Analysis, the effect of the substances on human cells will be analysed. When the cellular effects of the substances has been examined and documented, the Chinese can take out patents on the substances.
“In China the market for herbal medicine is worth more than USD 6 billion, and a number of very large herbal medicine producers are looking to launch their products on the Western markets,” says Bjørn Petersen, TCM Denmark. “China is a market we are interested in, but we are even more interested in the Western markets where herbal medicine still accounts for a minuscule part of the total drug market. Under all circumstances, producers of herbal medicines in China, India and other countries have a need for a professional and research based partnership which can help create necessary scientific documentation for their products.”
“The European herbal medicine alone represents a billion kroner business,” says Bjørn Petersen. “The partnership and trust between us and the producers of herbal medicines with whom we are in dialogue, ensures that each time we get a herbal medicine for screening, analysis, cultivation and documentation, both parties will get something out of it.”
Development Center Aarslev, a network consisting of a.o. Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, is one of the central partners in TCM Denmark. Denmark is a high tech agricultural country and one of the world’s leaders in livestock and crop research. The Funen based research and development centre has initiated a number of projects in order to identify active substances in medicinal plants and thereby open up for documented knowledge on the effect of these plants in relation to widespread diseases, e.g. diabetes, heart- and vascular disorders and allergy.
“From a climatic viewpoint Denmark is perfectly positioned for cultivating medicinal plants,” says the head of Development Center Aarslev, John Henriksen. “With the change in the world’s agricultural production, where basic production is increasingly moved out of Europe, it is natural to exploit our land for cultivation of high value crops such as medicinal plants.”
In addition to contributing as a competence centre in TCM Denmark’s relations with foreign producers of medicinal plants, the centre has a number of its own projects where research is carried out on plants which are indigenous to Denmark. One of the first results in this area has been achieved in collaboration with Hyben Vital, a producer of a product for rheumatoid arthritis which contains active substances from the hips of dog rose (Rosa canina L.).
“We have documented analytical evidence which shows that arthritis patients can reduce their consumption of conventional antiarthritis drugs by up to 50%, if they combine them with the herbal drug based on dog rose hips,” says John Henriksen. “Calculations made by an independent consultancy company have shown that in Denmark, which has a population of 5.5 million, it can save the country around USD 200 million over a five year period. There is compelling economics in the development of herbal medicine.”