The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Innovation and Technology Commission has awarded a grant to a private company and local university for a joint research project to improve a Chinese herbal injection formula.

SIIC Medical Science and Technology Group and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have been awarded a total funding of 5.07 million Hong Kong dollars (US$650,000) to define the bioactive components of Shenmai injection and their mechanisms of action, a press release issued by the university said.

Shenmai injection is currently manufactured by Chiatai Qingchunbao Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd in Hangzhou, it said.

Clinically used in the mainland for heart disease as well as a supplement for cancer therapy, sales of this product reached 14.6 million vials last year, it said.

Siow Yaw-Loong and O Karmin from the HKU's Department of Pharmacology will team up with Professor Zhu Da-Yuan of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and Chinese Academy of Sciences to add scientific value to the product and help increase its quality to an international standard.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2002)