ABSTRACT
With continuous introduction of relevant national policies on famous classical formulas, the research of famous classical formulas is popular all over the country. Different from other new drugs, in the research and development process of famous classical formulas, substance benchmark is earlier than the product, suggesting that the research and development of substance benchmark is of great significance. Based on previous work of the authors, content of substance benchmark of famous classical formulas was analyzed, which was included in the document <italic>The Management Regulation of Simplified Registration and Approval over Chinese Herbal Medicine Compound Preparations of Ancient Famous Classical Formulas</italic> released by the National Medical Products Administration in May 2018. In this paper, the significance of substance benchmark development was described, a five-stage of research strategy was proposed, covering the prescription textual research and historical evolution, the collection and quality evaluation of medicinal materials, the processing method and quality evaluation of decoction pieces, the preparation and quality research of substance benchmark, the drafting and formulating of quality standard over substance benchmark. At the same time, some suggestions were put forward to the feasibility of compound preparations development over famous classical formulas, the implementation difficulty of resource evaluation over Chinese medicinal materials, and the irrationality on the quality correlation of Chinese medicinal materials. All of these are expected to provide reference and enlightenment for the development and policy officially landed over ancient famous classical formulas.