Dr. Zoubida Rabehi interacts with Chinese senior citizens at the Taizhou Social Welfare Center

When Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in medicine last year for rediscovering artmisinin, the herbal drug used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat malaria, Dr. Zoubida Rabehi had a sense of personal satisfaction.

"My children and I have personally benefited from artemisinin," the 44-year-old Algerian general physician said.

Rabehi, who is also the wife of the Algerian Ambassador to China, Hassane Rabehi, lived in Ghana from 1997 to 2004 when her husband was posted to Accra as ambassador to Ghana. "My family and I, including my younger daughter who was born in Ghana in 1999, contracted malaria several times," she said. "We were taking quinine and too much of it had side effects. Then the Chinese doctors working in the Accra hospital suggested we use artemisinin, which being herbal had no side effects, and we were cured. When I heard about Tu receiving the Nobel [Prize], my first thought was that TCM would now be known more internationally and would have wider acceptance."

TCM lifelong focus

When the Rabehis first came to China six years ago, Zoubida Rabehi was interested in learning more about TCM. But she waited for three years because she felt one needed to know more about Chinese culture and history before attempting to study TCM. Finally, three years ago, she joined the master’s degree course at the famed Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

When they go back to Algiers, she plans to open her own clinic, where she wants to integrate TCM with Western medicine. It is not such a strange concept as the uninitiated think. Elements of TCM have long been in use in her country. "I have been aware of TCM since I was 10 years old," Rabehi said. "My aunt had an operation to have her appendix removed and the doctors used acupuncture to anesthetize her."

She herself is specializing in acupuncture, massage therapy and moxibustion - applying the heat generated by burning herbs to specific points of the body to treat illnesses. There is something very apposite about the Algerian immersing herself in TCM, considering that China’s overseas medical missions started with Algeria in January 1963. Responding to a request from Algeria’s Ministry of Health, China sent a medical team to help the North African country cope with the vacuum created by the departure of French doctors following Algeria’s independence from French rule.

Last month, Rabehi was part of a delegation of foreigners and foreign embassy officials who were invited to Taizhou, a green and serene city in east China’s Jiangsu Province seeking to become a global pharmaceutical hub.

Silk Road medicity

With a population of only 5 million, east China’s Taizhou City has a long history. Italian globetrotter Marco Polo came to Taizhou more than 700 years ago along the Maritime Silk Road and described it as a city of creature comforts and happiness. Today, it has the additional distinction of being home to China’s first national medical hi-tech zone.

Established in 2009, the China Medical City (CMC) aims to be the nation’s largest biomedical industry base with the most complete industry chain. Besides production, it includes facilities for research and development, medical education and vocational training, exhibitions and supporting industries like finance and software.

It also enjoys some special advantages. CMC is a trial crucible for new vaccines. Here new vaccines for both humans and animals are researched, produced for clinical trial and marketed. It has a flourishing TCM industry supported by the nearly 60-year-old Taizhou Hospital of TCM that will be supplemented in September with a 1,500-bed new hospital. It is a base for advanced stem cell research and has one of the largest stem cell banks in Asia.

"You will see a very different Taizhou and China that you have never seen before," promises Lan Shaomin, Secretary of Taizhou Municipal Party Committee. Lan said more than 600 companies have set up shop in Taizhou and there are collaborations with 50 universities and other agencies. "For 14 consecutive years, Taizhou has topped the pharmaceutical industry sector," Lan said. "We hope to make and market pharmaceuticals worth over 100 billion yuan ($15.17 billion) in 2016, and over 200 billion yuan ($30.34 billion) in 2019."

To support that, from 2010, Taizhou has started hosting an annual medical expo. The seventh edition of the China (Taizhou) International Medical Expo will be held in autumn this year.

African interest

Defying the nippy morning air, 63-year-old Tang Wan Ying is doing tai chi in the open yard of the Taihe Tang Museum of TCM along with other substantially younger people. Clusters of anxious young mothers are waiting to have their babies’ necks massaged and Dr. Xia Jin, a 34-year-old who is the fourth-generation TCM doctor in his family, is making little nicks on the nape of a male patient to treat him for arthritis.

The hospital sees patients from African countries from time to time. Xia has recently treated a 40-year-old South African with acupuncture for knee joint problems.

South Africa is an important country for Taizhou. At CMC, a South African company assembles medical equipment, including electro-respirators, oxygenerators and hospital beds. Last year, a CMC delegation visited South Africa to discuss cooperation and investment, and the sixth medical expo was attended by representatives from 12 countries, including South Africa.

Africa is the most important overseas market for the Taizhou-based Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group (YRPG), one of the largest drug manufacturers in China. "Africa is our largest market, accounting for over 50 percent of exports," said Leo Yang, the group’s overseas department sales manager. Over 40 products are currently being marketed or have been registered in 16 African countries, ranging from Algeria to Uganda. Future plans include expanding to 22 more.

"The policies in East Africa are good," Yang said. "We want to expand there. We plan to participate in the Kenya expo in September."

South Sudan opportunity

"In South Sudan we are using drugs made by YRPG," said Dr. Michael Milli Hussein, South Sudan’s Ambassador to China. "We would like some of these [Chinese pharma] companies to go and invest in South Sudan. We want them to lend their expertise and train some of our cadres."

The ambassador from the world’s youngest nation and a doctor who has specialized in tropical medicine, Hussein is asking the Chinese Government to help build up the medical infrastructure in his country that was born less than five years ago, especially in view of Chinese medical cooperation with African countries after the Ebola outbreak last year.

"Currently, the Chinese Government is providing us with some training facility, medicines and equipment," Hussein said. "These are areas we want to expand - from training doctors, nurses and midwives to helping us in institution building for health facilities."

South Sudan’s healthcare system is three-tiered, with community clinics run by clinical officers as the basic unit. Then come the rural hospitals followed by state hospitals with more specialized treatments and senior doctors. "We want the Chinese Government to help us establish our primary infrastructure, and provide training and medicines as well as equipment," Hussein said.

Like Ghana, South Sudan has a high incidence of malaria with the disease accounting for almost 30 percent of deaths, especially among children and the elderly. "China is a leading manufacturer of malarial drugs," Hussein said. "We buy these drugs or get them as donations. Why not invite the companies to manufacture in South Sudan and ease the transportation issue? We are a young country with very flexible rules for investment. Companies can go for a public-private partnership or be the sole proprietor or have a joint venture."