Will the Europe Union's Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (Directive 2004/24/EC) be against traditional Chinese medicine in EU market?

Abstract

As human civilization develops, biomedicine stays robust. Faced with the challenge of Europe Union's Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, if traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wants to be still used as one kind of medicine to treat patients, China should be in line with scientific law, that is, each claim that TCM treats any disease or indication should be supported by the data of evidence-based randomized clinical trials. As a priority, there is an urgent need to conduct more scientific experiments and clinical trials to verify the concepts and mechanisms of TCM. Also, China is encouraged to get rid of non-scientific concepts and theories of TCM.

Keywords: EU 2004/24/EC directive; TCM future in EU market; Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).