Chinese drug registration laws and regulations have always reserved a place for the new traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) drugs for syndromes, but so far no such new drugs have been approved for registration. This paper expounded on the relevant policies, regulations, and technologies of new TCM drugs for syndromes in China and pointed out that the application of the animal model of TCM syndromes to carry out pharmacodynamics research and clinical efficacy evaluation criteria of TCM syndromes were the main technical difficulties in the research and development of new TCM drugs for syndromes. Not all syndromes are suitable for developing new drugs, and the indications for new TCM drugs should be constant syndromes. Among the three research and development models of simple syndrome, syndrome-unified disease, and combined disease and syndrome, the research and development model of combined disease and syndrome is recommended. Clinical positioning is the key to new TCM drugs for syndromes. It is encouraged to conduct high-quality human use experience studies to determine the clinical positioning of new TCM drugs for syndromes, as well as the target population, dose, course of treatment, and initial therapeutic and safety, and apply for exemption from non-clinical effectiveness studies. Clinical trials of new TCM drugs for syndromes should take the target symptoms or signs as the main efficacy index and the efficacy of TCM syndromes as the secondary efficacy index. Clinical research program design should implement the "patient-centered" concept and introduce clinical outcome evaluation indicators. In the clinical safety evaluation, special conditions such as characteristic syndromes and changes should be considered. With the construction of the human use experience technology system and the promotion of the TCM registration and evaluation evidence system featuring the "combination of TCM theory, human use experience, and clinical trials", it is believed that many high-quality new TCM drugs for syndromes will be developed in the future.
Keywords: human use experience; new traditional Chinese medicine drugs; traditional Chinese medicine syndromes.