Opponents:

Li Jie (Nanfang Daily): It is OK to establish a national-level secret recipe system to protect TCM and support the industry. However, overprotection will only spoil the industry. The government gives an eternal protection of Chinese medicine, which jeopardizes innovation in the industry as well as consumers' health.

Saving lives tops gaining profits. Bayer aspirin monopolized the U.S. market for only 17 years and didn't apply for an extension in 1919 when the patent expired. The inventor of penicillin gave up the medicine's patent so that it could be produced on a large scale and affordable to more people.

You Yunting (Lawyer on intellectual property rights): TCM is part of traditional Chinese culture. In domestic markets, the government has issued laws and regulations to protect some famous Chinese patented medicines. When the medicine is exported overseas, both the laws and customers of the importing countries require the medicine manufacturer to reveal the formulas. In order to gain a presence in the U.S. market, Yunnan Baiyao has disclosed its full ingredients according to local regulation.

The company's discrepancy finally led to domestic consumers' dissatisfaction. Some say the company could use the patent law to protect its formula, which, in my opinion, often turns out to be impractical. The technology applied for protection by patent law should be novel and original. Yunnan Baiyao, as a traditional medicine, was developed in the last century with no novelty. Furthermore, for a successful application, an invention has to publish its core technique. And there is a validity period for a patent of 20 years, after which, the invention will be attributed to the whole society. Western medicine manufacturers have adapted to this system by establishing a clinical research and business model to fully apply the patent when it is valid. But for Chinese medicine, the validity period of 20 years is too short to make the formula profitable.

Despite this situation, there are ways to protect Chinese medicine producers so they can survive. In line with international conventions and Chinese domestic laws, the formula of Yunnan Baiyao can be classified as trade secret. The company could learn from Coca Cola, which discloses its basic ingredients but protects the core proportion of each ingredient and techniques to process them. In this way, the protection of both consumers' rights to know and the company's interests will be satisfied. It is time for the government and Chinese medicine manufacturers to abandon the national-level secret recipe system.

Chen Hao (China Economic Herald): The national-level secret recipe protection system will not protect TCM. The State Council issued a regulation to protect Chinese medicine in 1992 stipulating those classified as A-level protection categories will get certification to prevent their processing techniques and ingredients proportion from being disclosed. However, the protection doesn't mean medicine manufacturers can add illegal ingredients in their formulas.

In the short run, the medicine and its manufacturer could gain rapid development with the secret recipe protection system. While in the long run, the move destroys fair competition and such rights may be abused by some enterprises.

Learning the basic ingredients of a medicine is a patient's right. Disclosing the formula doesn't mean an enterprise has to give full ingredient proportions or processing techniques.

Comparing the instructions of Chinese medicine with Western medicine, we will surprisingly discover Western medicine's detailed elaboration, especially the detailed adverse reaction list. The secret recipe system will not boost the industry of Chinese medicine. In contrast, not looking toward the future will only hinder Chinese medicine from developing and becoming globally popular.

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