Taiwanese biomedical company seeks to harness traditional Chinese medicine
A Taiwanese company is synthesizing cordyceps sinensis, a fungus used in traditinal Chinese medicine, in order to develop complementary pharmacueticals:
“Cordyceps sinensis is a species of parasitic fungus that grows on, and eventually takes over, the common caterpillar. As the fungus grows outward it leaves the body of the caterpillar intact, giving this traditional Chinese medicinal ingredient its unique and distinctive ‘half animal, half plant’ appearance. TCM uses only genuine Cordyceps sinensis identified by DNA sequence and registered in GenBank.
The company possesses exclusive gene patents and identification technology for various mycelium cultures (Hirsutella sinensis, Paecilomyces hepialid, etc.). Amongst such cultures, the cultivation of Hirsutella sinensis is considered the most difficult to process. TCM’s key breakthroughs have shortened the fermentation process of the Hirsutella sinensis culture from 35-40 days to only 7 days; no competitor has been able to match this achievement.
TCM specializes in the use of new drug R&D protocols and methodologies in research on traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Besides pursuing better safety, efficacy and process quality control, the company’s use of proprietary fermentation processes to cultivate selected mycelia enables it to maintain consistent raw materials.
In terms of new drug R&D, TCM seeks to develop adjuvant therapy that can compensate for the shortcomings of conventional Western medicines. In this regard, the company seeks to complement–not compete–with Western pharmaceutical therapies. For example, one of TCM’s recent projects has been to develop agents to remedy some of the problems encountered when chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients are treated with Western antiviral drugs. With approximately 200 million HCV patients worldwide, it is estimated that the cost of treatment will exceed US$3.9 billion in 2007. Furthermore, since existing HCV drugs have a sub-optimal cure rate and induce severe side effects in some patients, few HCV patients actually receive adequate treatment. “
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