Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – The “2025 Tribute to Medical Professionals Ceremony: Academic Exchange Conference on Children's Safe Medication” was held in Beijing on November 30th. The conference, themed “Collective Wisdom, Innovation, and Protection,” launched the “Young and Middle-Aged Doctors Growth Plan – A Sky Full of Stars Science Popularization Project,” injecting new momentum into pediatric medical talent training and children's medication science popularization.
This conference focused on the core public welfare issue of children's medication safety, bringing together authoritative forces from multiple fields such as policy research, clinical medicine, and pharmaceutical research and development. Its aim was to solve the challenges of children's medication, share cutting-edge achievements, and build a full-cycle protection system, thus strengthening the medical defense line for children's physical and mental health development.
Dong Yu, Executive Vice President of the Institute for China Development Planning at Tsinghua University, provided an in-depth interpretation of the new requirements and opportunities in the health and medicine field within the “15th Five-Year Plan” goals. "Children's growth is one of the most fundamental aspects of people's livelihood. Our concern should not stop at childbirth itself, but extend to the entire process of children's growth, constructing a systematic project covering their physical, mental, and social well-being. This work is closely related to long-term economic development."
Dong Yu stated that among the tasks of the "15th Five-Year Plan" goals, the tasks of modernizing the industrial system, technological innovation, and the domestic market are particularly closely related to the medical and health industry. The transformation and upgrading of traditional industries is the foundation of economic development, while emerging and future industries will open up new spaces for the pharmaceutical industry. "It can be said that wherever people's health needs lie, that's where the industry's direction will be."
"Following treatment guidelines in pediatric clinical medication, and ensuring safety and effectiveness through long-term clinical verification is crucial," said Wang Tianyou, Chairman of the Expert Committee on Pediatric Medication of the National Health Commission. He pointed out that current pediatric clinical medication still relies on guesswork, with dosages often determined by intuition. Children differ significantly from adults in terms of drug metabolism enzyme systems, liver and kidney function development, and the probability of adverse reactions after drug use is higher. A clear diagnosis and appropriate medication must be prescribed before administering medication to children, and the dosage for children is usually calculated based on factors such as age and weight.
"Real-world research provides important evidence for the rational use of medications in children," said Wang Tianyou. Taking short stature as an example, he noted that diagnosis and treatment are undergoing a comprehensive transformation from "empirical medicine" to "precision medicine." Effective and rational treatment of short stature in children requires adherence to the indications in the product label and domestic guidelines as the cornerstones for medication selection, ensuring standardized diagnosis and treatment and practicing individualized therapy.
"Pediatricians need to cover the entire growth stage of patients, from the fertilized egg and fetal stage to 18-20 years of age. Growth and development during childhood lays the foundation for their health throughout their adult lifespan," said Luo Xiaoping, the incoming chairman of the Chinese Medical Association's Pediatrics Branch and president of the Children's Hospital of Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. "We emphasize a holistic approach, providing services along the entire life cycle, while advocating a collaborative decision-making model centered on the child and parents to achieve long-term disease management."
Luo Xiaoping stated that in recent years, my country has made rapid progress in the field of innovative drug therapy, achieving breakthroughs in cell therapy, gene therapy, and traditional biological therapy. In the field of pediatric endocrinology, U-type PEGylated long-acting growth hormone is the world's first long-acting growth hormone, and its clinical indication research is also among the world's leading. This real-world clinical data comes from the use of patients in my country, and Chinese experts are actively participating in the development of international guidelines and consensus in this field.
"The treatment of short stature with growth hormone has entered the long-acting era. The use of long-acting growth hormone has reduced the number of injections per year for children from 365 to 52, greatly improving treatment adherence," shared Gong Chunxiu, head of the Pediatric Endocrinology, Genetics and Metabolism Group of the Chinese Medical Association and chief physician of the Department of Endocrinology at Beijing Children's Hospital, sharing the 10-year research and development and application achievements of U-type PEGylated long-acting growth hormone.
She explained that since its launch in 2014, this long-acting growth hormone has been used on 150,000 Chinese children, and a systematic real-world tracking study system has been established. The latest 5-year real-world study covered 1,207 children with growth hormone deficiency nationwide, fully validating the safety and efficacy of the drug. The study results also showed that compared with short-acting growth hormone, this weekly formulation improved convenience and adherence, reduced the treatment burden, and improved patients' quality of life during medication, especially for children with poorer adherence, showing a potential advantage in improving efficacy.
During the roundtable discussion at the conference, experts engaged in in-depth discussions on hot and challenging topics in pediatrics, including "Based on the Year of Pediatric Services, Discussing a New Vision for High-Quality Children's Health Development," "Laying Out the '15th Five-Year Plan,' Dialogue on Pediatric Innovation R&D Paths and the New Future," "Focusing on Children's Safe Drugs, Solving the Mechanism and Guarantee System for Children's Safe Drug Use," and "Practicing Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment, Upholding the Path to Children's Safe Growth." Experts provided clear pathways for children's safe drug use and healthy development throughout their entire life cycle from multiple dimensions, including the health and pharmaceutical guidance of the "15th Five-Year Plan," standardized clinical drug use in children, health education empowering pediatric diagnosis and treatment, and collaborative R&D and application of innovative drugs between industry and medicine. (End)
