Value creation through modernizing Chinese medicine

My first hypothesis in this thesis is that there is significant value vested in traditional Chinese medicine that can be captured by converting them into ethical drugs through scientific analysis, screening and validation. Further, holistic treatment is a key difference between traditional Chinese medicine and western-type chemical drugs, which makes Chinese medicine a very valuable category of knowledge. Using mixed formula is a primary method of treatment in Chinese medicine. It is the application of distinctive medical philosophies of Chinese herbal medicines in practices, reflecting the uniqueness and advantages of Chinese medicine. For example, there are 96,592 mixed formula recorded by "Dictionary of Chinese Medicine Mixed Formula" published in 1997. My second hypothesis in this thesis is that value can be created and captured, under the globalization context, from mixed herbal formulas for the mainstream world market with the aid of fingerprint technologies. To enter western markets as officially approved drugs through critical pathways, both scientific and regulatory, Chinese herb drugs must demonstrate sound evidence for safety and efficacy. I address in this thesis one of the central concerns of the pharmaceutical companies and FDA, that is, how quality control and material consistency is assured and how toxicity and drug kinetics of Chinese herbal medicines, either in its raw form, its purified form, its composite extract form or its mixed formula form, may be measured with reasonable scientific certainty and what would be the likely trajectory of further research.

Department dc:contributor.department

Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Sun, Lizhe

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Frank L. Douglas and Anthony J. Sinskey.

• Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42217

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/42217