To carry forward Traditional Chinese Medicines and highlight its special characteristics; encourage innovation, promote improvement and protect advanced products; and ensure the scientificity, fairness and standardization in the protection of Traditional Chinese Medicines; in accordance with Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Chinese Medicines, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) recently issued Guidelines on the Protection of Traditional Chinese Medicines.

The Guidelines consists of five parts, i.e., General Provisions, General Requirements, Primary Protection, Protection of Same Variety and Extension of the Protection Period.