From Jun. 2 to 6, 2024, the 14th plenary session of International Organization for Standardization/Technical Committee on Traditional Chinese Medicine (ISO/TC249) was held in Sydney, Australia. Cao Chunyu, Researcher at the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS), was invited to attend the session.

Since its establishment in 2011, ISO/TC249 has published more than 100 international standards in the field of TCM, most of which have been formulated with China playing the leading role. The issuance of these international standards has greatly promoted the spread and application of TCM drugs, acupuncture devices and other medical equipment, and the TCM terms in the world. Remarkable results have been noticed in the field of TCM drugs, which have enhanced international trade. ISO/TC249 has 6 subsidiary working groups (WG), among which WG1 (Quality and safety of raw materials and traditional processing) and WG2 (Quality and safety of manufactured TCM products) are related with TCM drugs. During this plenary session, WG1 carried out its 31st meeting, while WG2 its 27th; both groups fully discussed more than 40 standard proposals during the meeting, most of which gained effective progress.

As a registered Chinese expert on WG1 and WG2 for more than 10 years, Researcher Cao Chunyu acted as the contact person of the WG1/WG2 supporting institution of the Chinese delegation, to be responsible for assisting the Chinese proposals of the two working groups and responding to foreign proposals, and for keeping close contact and communication with TC249 technical counterparts in China in a timely manner, so as to deal with various matters arising during the meeting.

Cao also participated in the committee for drafting the resolution of the plenary session of TC249 on behalf of China, in charge of drafting the various resolutions of the plenary session and various working groups. Led by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and TC249 domestic technical counterparts, Cao completed the above responsibilities.

Photo 1 Picture of the CACMS delegation

Photo 2 The drafting committee for TC249 resolution is working together