Reporter Dai Shufang / Taipei Report
In response to the frequent reports of shortages of western medicines, the central government has brought the coordination center for notifications of shortages to the ministry level. Minister of Health and Welfare Xue Ruiyuan also said on the 12th that he will start planning for the first time to report shortages of traditional Chinese medicines. Immediate response to scheduling.
Xue Ruiyuan attended the 15th Taipei International Academic Forum on Traditional Chinese Medicine on the 93rd National Medical Day of the National Federation of Chinese Physician Associations of the Republic of China in 2023. In his speech, he said that in the future, the lack of medicines in traditional Chinese medicine also needs to be notified, so as to achieve instant control, immediate response, and dispatch Import schedule or coordinate with manufacturers to increase production volume.
Xue Ruiyuan said that in the past, most of the problems of western medicine shortages were dealt with by the Food and Drug Administration, and the scope would be relatively narrow, but now the role of the Drug Notification Center has been extended to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and it is necessary to include Chinese medicine shortages. In the future, As long as there is a shortage of medicine found in the Chinese medicine industry, it must be notified, and it should be established before April at the earliest.
In addition, President Tsai Ing-wen said that the government is also promoting the “Traditional Chinese Medicine Revitalization Plan” to encourage the planting of more medicinal plants to promote Taiwan’s own production and use of Chinese medicinal materials, thereby opening up a wider international market. Xue Ruiyuan also said that in the future, it is expected to cooperate with the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to see if there is more room for domestic manufacturing in the supply chain. But he also said frankly that the Council of Agriculture will not be able to invest too much manpower for a while, and in the future it will be integrated across ministries under the enforcement of the Executive Yuan, and it is hoped that it will be established in the next 1 to 2 years.
