The Executive Yuan yesterday proposed a Chinese medicine development bill, which states that the government should allocate funds for the sustainable development of Chinese medicine for the benefit of the health of the public.
The bill was drafted in response to the WHO’s Traditional Medicine Strategy 2013 to 2024, which called on governments around the world to give importance to and form policies to govern traditional medicine.
Aside from providing the funding necessary for the development of Chinese medicine, the Ministry of Health and Welfare would also be tasked with setting five-year Chinese medicine development plans that include development goals, as well as plans to improve the quality of Chinese medicine, boost the pharmaceutical sector, promote international exchanges in Chinese medicine and foster talent, the bill says.
The ministry would subsidize Chinese medicine research and development, as well as the growing of plants with medicinal uses, it says.
The ministry would be responsible for setting the qualifications of subsidy applicants, checking qualifications, approving applications and the disbursement of funds, it says.
The ministry would strengthen the role of Chinese medicine in the National Health Insurance system, as well as establish a system to govern the quality of institutes practicing Chinese medicine, thereby safeguarding public health and modernizing Chinese medicine, it says.
The ministry would monitor Chinese medicine products and publish the results of its investigations, it says.
The ministry would help the Chinese medicine sector expand overseas, as well as promote and preserve knowledge about Chinese medicine or any folklore associated with a branch of medicine, it says.
A national Chinese medicine database to collect and analyze data on basic, empirical and clinical research on Chinese medicine would be established by the ministry to boost the scientific basis for studies into Chinese medicine, and facilitate collaborations between the Chinese medicine industry, the public sector and academia, the bill says.
The Cabinet in May approved a plan to allocate NT$670 million (US$21.9 million) to a project to improve the quality of Chinese medicine from next year to 2024, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The government would also add more Chinese medicine services to the National Health Insurance system, he said, urging the ministry to communicate with all the legislative caucuses so that the bill could be passed as soon as possible.
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