Sichuan province has relatively powerful strength in medicine R & D. Large quantities of first-class medicine research organizations and the talented people stay in many universities, colleges, and institutes in its capital Chengdu City. There are 64 specialized research organizations, consisting of Chengdu University of T.C.M, West China School of Pharmacy Sichuan University, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Traditional Medicine of Sichuan province, Sichuan Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, etc., 49 TCM laboratories defined by the State, province or municipality, together with eight key disciplines at the national, provincial an municipal level respectively. Apart from the all above, one State TCM Modernization sci-tech Industrialization (Sichuan) Base was established, and seven technology center for enterprises at the national or provincial level, one National Engineering Center for Natural Medicines, plus 90 research bodies embarking on preclinical experiment and clinical testing. Some medicine universities, just like Sichuan University and Chengdu University of T.C.M have arranged doctoral mobile stations，conferring sites for doctor’s or master’s degree of their own which are relevant to TCM, and the total number of them are three, nine and 21 respectively. The Safety Evaluation Center of Sichuan Institute of Natural Medicines and National Chengdu Center for Safety Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicine have already passed the GLP certification, meanwhile, the State (Chengdu) GCP center of TCM has succeeded in the audit and verification by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the P.R.C.
Chengdu has a great deal of qualified talented personnel in medicine R & D--about 4000 experts dedicating themselves to this career, 29 of whom are the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 300 more persons are entitled as prominent contributors by the State. With their diligent efforts, they are now capable of conducting medicine R&D throughout the whole process, starting from medicine screening, to preclinical experiment, to clinical testing and to the ultimate industrialization production. Moreover, medicine enterprises in Sichuan province are composed of 15 technology centers for enterprises at the national or provincial level, including the National Engineering Research Center for Natural Medicines, the exclusive one in the whole nation.
The R&D strength of medical science and technology in Sichuan province largely focuses on scientific research projects where the TCM plays a major role. Located in Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, State TCM Modernization sci-tech Industrialization (Sichuan) Base, the unique provincial TCM industry base in China, heads in the national TCM development. The Base is more than a pharmaceuticals production base in which the biggest domestic TCM industrial park imposes far-reaching influences in the country and the world; it is also a systematic project incorporating TCM R&D, medicine material plantation and production, TCM pharmacy, and associated supporting services—the four main functions altogether perfectly. Research projects to study the plantation standards of ten Class-Ⅱ，30 Class-Ⅲ new traditional Chinese medicines of national standard and 13 other TCMs were entrusted to Chengdu University of T.C.M and Sichuan Institute of Chinese Materia Medica for concerted development. These projects, since then, were settled in the park. Along with the completion of a number of projects, e.g. School of Pharmacy, Chengdu University of T.C.M, pilotscale experiment incubation base of Sichuan Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, and Debang Molecule Laboratory, adding nearly 30 projects having been put into production, a 2,000-mu “medicine valley” with modern features has been cropped up preliminarily. Relying on the Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Hi-tech Zone (West), the park attracts a wave of production enterprises and scientific organizations. Hence, a TCM hi-tech industry group has been boosted, and now, it is making its way towards a hi-tech industrial park combining R&D, pilotscale experiment incubation, production & marketing, and other necessary functions as an integration.
As the State TCM Modernization sci-tech Industrialization Base, the Sichuan province boasts a batch of hi-tech results, for instance, supercritical Extraction, ultrafine particle grounding, macroporous resin absorption and other pharmacy technologies and device research projects. Sichuan province in recent years, with Chengdu city at the core, has assumed a good many brainstorm projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China and the projects mapped out for TCM industry during the 9th and 10th five-year plans, the shouldered projects topped the list of the nation in quantity. In a lot of regards, Sichuan province has harvested joyful research fruits: TCM basic theory, GAP construction of TCM produced in Sichuan, technical study in TCM pharmacy, TCM safety study, evaluation system research of TCM curative effect, etc. Chengdu city was granted around 30 TCM patents between the year 1996 and 2001, slightly behind Shanghai city, dwarfing any other city like Guangzhou, Xi’an and Kunming. Chengdu also takes a lead for its 20-odd TCM types, which were lately honored with new medicine certificates over the past a couple of years. The city applied about 100 TCM new medicines for certificates, and 75.6 per cent were admitted, which placed 2nd domestically.
In the last two decade,Sichuan province has make fabulous achievements in TCM research. It managed to obtain 103 scientific and technological results—five belonged to creative and innovative fruits, and another 11 took the seats as the State significant scientific and technological fruits—many new medicines were developed in varieties of antibiotics, chemical compound medicine and prepared Chinese medicine.23 fruits got State golden or silver awards, ministry excellent product awards going to 56 fruits, provincial excellent product awards going to 194 fruits, and 13 named as Sichuan name brand.