UWS and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine sign MoU

The Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM) has signed an agreement with the University of Western Sydney (UWS), the home of the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). The memorandum of understanding was signed in the presence of Australian Prime Minister the Hon Tony Abbott and His Excellency Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China.

UWS and NICM have a longstanding relationship with BUCM in both research and education. Their new agreement will see the development of a high-quality Chinese medicine integrative clinical service in Sydney that will have a close connection to both clinical and laboratory-based research. It is hoped that this research will lead to the development of treatments for unmet medical needs and new medicines for export around the world.

Australia is the only Western nation to have a unified national registration of Chinese medicine practitioners and strict regulation of medicines. UWS Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover said this well-established regulatory framework and the reputation for complementary medicine research at NICM - assessed by the Australian Research Council as ‘well above world standard’ - provides a suitable environment for the partnership with BUCM to deliver benefits to patients and the nation’s economy.

“Together, UWS and BUCM will conduct the research and clinical trials required to validate and translate Chinese medicines into an integrated healthcare setting in Australia,” he said. BUCM President Professor Xu Anlong added that the centre will provide “a world-class facility integrating clinical service, education and research, together, to serve the Australian people and promote Chinese medicine to the world, particularly in developed countries like Australia”.

NICM Director Professor Alan Bensoussan concluded that the collaboration will increase the capacity of scientists and clinicians to research Chinese medicine treatments, accelerating the development of more effective treatments for today’s chronic health problems. He said, “This agreement is the bridge that brings the research conducted in the laboratory closer to the patient’s beside, where it can make a real difference to a person’s health and wellbeing.”