The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by pharmacist Tu Youyou will help boost the development of traditional Chinese medicines, according to a senior health official.

Tu, from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, was due to receive the award on Thursday in Stockholm, Sweden, for her discovery of artemisinin, a TCM that can cure malaria.

Her success has led to a promising approach to the modernization and development of TCM through science and technology, said Cao Hongxin, the science and technology chief of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.