A New Drug against Heat Diseases

摘要

Through a large number of clinical trials over the past 13 years, researchers from the Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) under the CAS Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences have developed a new cardiovascular drug with a definite effective component extracted from Dan Shen, a medicinal herb widely used in China. It is confirmed to be safe and effective. On May 25, a New Drug Application (NDA) of depsides salts from the herb and its preparation for the potential treatment of chronic angina obtained China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) approval. Dan Shen (or Chinese Salvia, Salvia miltiorrhiza) is a renowned Asian traditional herb, used for centuries to support cardiovascular health. Based on its extract, many Pharmaceuticals have been developed in China. For instance, more than three billion such injections are used annually as an alternative approach to treat cardiovascular patients. But until recently, due to a lack of understanding of the efficient components of the herb, it is difficult to control the quality of its medications.