Obstacles and opportunities in Chinese pharmaceutical innovation.

BACKGROUND: Global healthcare innovation networks nowadays have expanded beyond developed countries with many developing countries joining the force and becoming important players. China, in particular, has seen a significant increase in the number of innovative firms and research organizations stepping up to the global network in recent years. Nevertheless, the intense Research and Development input has not brought about the expectable output. While China is ascending at a great speed to a leading position worldwide in terms of Research and Development investment, scientific publications and patents, the innovation capabilities in the pharmaceutical sector remain weak. DISCUSSION: This study discusses the challenges and opportunities for pharmaceutical innovation in China. One hand, academic, industrial, institutional and financial constraints were found to be the major and inevitable barriers hindering the development of drug innovation. On the other hand, unique advantages had been observed which included growing pharmaceutical market, Research and Development funding, distinctive source, and international cooperation. The most important thing for China's pharmaceutical sector to leap forward is to break though innovation barriers and integrate own advantages into global value-chain of healthcare product development.

[Quality Traceability System of TCM Based on Two-Dimensional Code].

Objective: To explore the quality traceability of traditional Chinese medicine based on quality two-dimensional code. Methods: Through reviewing and evaluating the current major tracing technologies and traceability system of traditional Chinese medicine, it was proposed that the concept of traditional Chinese medicine quality two-dimensional code, and on this basis, to build a quality traceability system and proposed concept model of online cloud platform of TCM quality traceability system, while the pros and cons were discussed. Results: This system was expected to break through the limitations of most of the original traceability system, not only to have information on the origin, circulation and processing steps, but also to track the intrinsic quality of the medicine; meanwhile the system expected to be used not only for Chinese herbal medicines, but also expected to be used to pieces, soups, Chinese patent drugs, etc. Conclusion: This study provides a theoretical basis for the establishment of quality traceability system of traditional Chinese medicine.

An Integrative Thrombosis Network: Visualization and Topological Analysis.

A comprehensive understanding of the integrative nature of the molecular network in thrombosis would be very helpful to develop multicomponent and multitarget antithrombosis drugs for use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This paper attempts to comprehensively map the molecular network in thrombosis by combining platelet signaling, the coagulation cascade, and natural clot dissolution systems and to analyze the topological characteristics of the network, including the centralities of nodes, network modules, and network robustness. The results in this research advance understanding of functions of proteins in the thrombosis network and provide a reference for predicting potential therapeutic antithrombotic targets and evaluating their influence on the network.

Traceability and Quality Control in Traditional Chinese Medicine: From Chemical Fingerprint to Two-Dimensional Barcode.

Chemical fingerprinting is currently a widely used tool that enables rapid and accurate quality evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). However, chemical fingerprints are not amenable to information storage, recognition, and retrieval, which limit their use in Chinese medicine traceability. In this study, samples of three kinds of Chinese medicines were randomly selected and chemical fingerprints were then constructed by using high performance liquid chromatography. Based on chemical data, the process of converting the TCM chemical fingerprint into two-dimensional code is presented; preprocess and filtering algorithm are also proposed aiming at standardizing the large amount of original raw data. In order to know which type of two-dimensional code (2D) is suitable for storing data of chemical fingerprints, current popular types of 2D codes are analyzed and compared. Results show that QR Code is suitable for recording the TCM chemical fingerprint. The fingerprint information of TCM can be converted into data format that can be stored as 2D code for traceability and quality control.

China's landscape in oncology drug research: perspectives from research collaboration networks.

OBJECTIVE: Better understanding of China's landscape in oncology drug research is of great significance for discovering anti-cancer drugs in future. This article differs from previous studies by focusing on Chinese oncology drug research communities in co-publication networks at the institutional level. Moreover, this research aims to explore structures and behaviors of relevant research units by thematic community analysis and to address policy recommendations. METHODS: This research used social network analysis to define an institutions network and to identify a community network which is characterized by thematic content. RESULTS: A total of 675 sample articles from 2008 through 2012 were retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) database of Web of Science, and top institutions and institutional pairs are highlighted for further discussion. Meanwhile, this study revealed that institutions based in the Chinese mainland are located in a relatively central position, Taiwan's institutions are closely assembled on the side, and Hong Kong's units located in the middle of the Chinese mainland's and Taiwan's. Spatial division and institutional hierarchy are still critical barriers to research collaboration in the field of anti-cancer drugs in China. In addition, the communities focusing on hot research areas show the higher nodal degree, whereas communities giving more attention to rare research subjects are relatively marginalized to the periphery of network. CONCLUSIONS: This paper offers policy recommendations to accelerate cross-regional cooperation, such as through developing information technology and increasing investment. The brokers should focus more on outreach to other institutions. Finally, participation in topics of common interest is conducive to improved efficiency in research and development (R&D) resource allocation.

Cross-regional Pharmaceutical Technology Transfer in China: Patterns and Proposed Investment Strategies.

The Chinese pharmaceutical market is undergoing dramatic growth, with a huge population, urbanization, a growing number of elderly patients, and increases in the standard of living. As a research-based and high-tech sector, the pharmaceutical industry depends highly upon technological innovation, especially the spatial diffusion of technologies from the perspective of economic geography. In this context, an analysis of technology flowing between regions is of great significance for the investment in a regional market. This article differs from previous studies by focusing on geographic patterns of pharmaceutical technology transfer captured by patent licensing in China, which are further used to analyze investment strategies. The research sample is composed of all pharmaceutical patent licenses filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China from January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2012. As a result, a geographic network of pharmaceutical technology diffusion in China could be visualized, and province-level regions were ranked and classified into 3 types-input, output, and balance-by various network indicators. Finally, potential investment strategies on different types of regions are recommended for firms abroad, technology holders, contract research organizations, and technology agencies.

[Development of quality traceability system of traditional Chinese medicine].

The development of Chinese medicine is directly related to the quality and safety issues, It has drawn great attention of people. Chinese traditional medicine quality issue involves two aspects of traditional Chinese medicine itself and human. In order to prevent man-made or illegal factors led to the decrease of the quality of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or security risk, it needs to establish a feasible system to guarantee, in which the construction and development of traditional Chinese medicine quality traceability system is an important direction of the development of the traditional Chinese medicine in the future. This paper first reviews the development of quality traceability system status and critical retrospective techniques, then introduced current development status of quality traceability system of traditional Chinese medicine( QTS-TCM), pointing out the characteristics of QTS-TCM, and finally given the current research findings of QTS-TCM.