The use of varied herbal medicines targets at multiple causes, resulting in a good effect in treating chronic diseases.[provided to china daily]

In clinical practice, TCM has proven to be good at treating chronic diseases, because those ailments are often caused by multiple biological abnormalities, resulting in complicated drug targets which modern Western medicine may not have a good effect on, according to Liu Ping, the inventor of FZHY.

He says TCM can be a good alternative because it focuses on the whole of a person's health.

While TCM techniques such as acupuncture and massage have gained popularity in the West, herbal medicines are still not well-received among Westerners.

Few Chinese patented drugs have been approved by Western health authorities to enter into the drug market. Most such drugs and herbals are on supermarket shelves only as supplements and healthcare products, says Zhang Boli, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

"FZHY's success can provide useful information for patented Chinese drug producers who want to get into the international drug market," Zhang says.

Liver fibrosis is common among long-term liver disease patients, and FZHY has been widely used in China since 2003 to improve the condition, while Western medicine has no good cure for it.

FZHY's Phase Two trials used liver biopsies on patients to collect data on its efficiency and safety in treating liver fibrosis, and that has proved to be a wise move, Zhang says.

"For patented Chinese medicines to go international, it is important to make good use of TCM's positive effects in clinical conditions where Western medicine may have no better control, such as chronic diseases," Zhang says.

However, although FZHY has completed the second-phase clinical trials required by the US regulators, there is still a long way to go before final approval for the mainstream drug market in the US.

The overall success rate for drugs moving beyond Phase One trials to final approval is about one in 10, according to a study conducted by the trade group Biotechnology Industry Organization in 2011.