ShanghaiJune 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — From May 28 to 31, 2026, the 20th Oriental Congress of Cardiology (OCC 2026) was successfully held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center. With the core theme of “Openness, Innovation, and Collaboration,” the conference attracted tens of thousands of cardiovascular experts and scholars from home and abroad to discuss the latest cutting-edge advances in the field of cardiology.
In this academic feast where cutting-edge technology and clinical evidence complemented each other, how to tell “Chinese medical stories” in modern scientific language became the focal point of the entire event. During the conference, the congress chairman, Academician Ge Junbo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Shi Haiming took the stage from Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University to deliver a special report on the landmark MUST series of studies on Shexiang Baoxin Pill, under Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals, in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.
The Story Behind the Shexiang Baoxin Pill MUST Study: Evidence-Based Medicine Helping TCM Go Global
At the Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Forum of this year’s congress, Academician Ge Junbo shared in depth the hardships and achievements behind the large-scale MUST evidence-based study on Shexiang Baoxin Pill, and comprehensively analyzed the necessary path for traditional Chinese medicine to transition from empirical medicine to evidence-based medicine.
Traditional medicine and modern medicine are not opposed to each other. The advantage of traditional Chinese medicine lies in treating the person as a whole, rather than “treating the head when the head aches, and treating the foot when the foot hurts.” However, if traditional Chinese medicine is to successfully go global, it must be supported by evidence-based medicine and engage in dialogue with international standards on the same rules and platform.
Academician Ge pointed out that the decade-long MUST study, as the first clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of Shexiang Baoxin Pill using a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, has set multiple “firsts” in the field of traditional Chinese medicine: It is currently the largest-scale, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel clinical study conforming to international standards; the first clinical efficacy study of traditional Chinese medicine to use major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, hard endpoints) as the primary endpoint; and also the first clinical safety study of traditional Chinese medicine with a placebo control and a follow-up period of up to 24 months.
Even more encouraging, the MUST study produced high-quality scientific evidence, comprehensively confirming the efficacy and safety of Shexiang Baoxin Pill. The main study results showed that at the 24-month follow-up, the MACE incidence in the Shexiang Baoxin Pill group was reduced by 26.9% compared to the placebo group. On this basis, the research team further expanded the comprehensive evidence map from “A to W,” conducting in-depth analyses of multiple subgroups including diabetes (MUST-D), women (MUST-F), renal insufficiency (MUST-K), and different body weights (MUST-W), as well as a pharmacoeconomic evaluation (MUST-E), providing precise, multi-dimensional treatment evidence for various types of coronary heart disease patient populations.
At the end of the report, Academician Ge summarized that the successful implementation of the Shexiang Baoxin Pill MUST study is not only a new starting point for evidence-based research in traditional Chinese medicine, proving that Chinese medicine can confirm its long-term efficacy and safety under rigorous scientific scrutiny, but also provides a highly valuable reference path for traditional Chinese medicine to conduct large-scale evidence-based medical research and successfully go global. He expressed hope for more large-sample, more rigorous Chinese patent medicine studies in the future to clarify the effective populations and intrinsic mechanisms of drugs, ultimately driving the magnificent transformation of traditional Chinese medicine from “experience” to “evidence.”
MUST-K Subgroup Analysis: Shexiang Baoxin Pill Safely Protects Patients with Coronary Heart Disease and Renal Insufficiency
Professor Shi Haiming provided a detailed interpretation of an important subgroup analysis of the MUST study—MUST-K—at this conference. This subgroup analysis confirmed the cardiovascular protective effects and excellent safety of long-term use of Shexiang Baoxin Pill in patients with stable coronary heart disease complicated by mild-to-moderate renal insufficiency. The relevant results have been published in the international journal Phytomedicine (IF=8.3).
Based on the MUST study, the MUST-K subgroup analysis conducted an in-depth investigation of 1,354 coronary heart disease patients with mild-to-moderate renal insufficiency (estimated glomerular filtration rate eGFR < 90 ml/min/1.73m², 655 patients in the Shexiang Baoxin Pill group vs. 699 in the placebo group). On top of conventional Western medicine treatment, patients in both groups took either Shexiang Baoxin Pill or a placebo three times daily and were followed up for 24 months.
The study results showed that at the 24-month follow-up, the incidence of the primary endpoint MACE in the Shexiang Baoxin Pill group was 2.4%, a 29.4% reduction compared to the placebo group (3.4%). Furthermore, further Landmark analysis revealed that the survival curves for the primary endpoint in both groups showed a change in slope around 12 to 16 months; Shexiang Baoxin Pill use at 12 and 16 months both showed a trend toward protective effects. Analysis of secondary endpoints (a composite outcome of all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina or heart failure, and coronary angioplasty) showed that the incidence of secondary endpoint events in the Shexiang Baoxin Pill group was 10.1%, a 15.1% reduction compared to the placebo group (11.9%); Landmark analysis indicated that at 14 months, Shexiang Baoxin Pill significantly reduced the incidence of secondary endpoint events (P=0.046), particularly effectively lowering the probability of patient hospitalization due to unstable angina. Professor Shi stated that this fully confirms the unique biological cumulative effect of traditional Chinese medicine, meaning that its cardiovascular protective effects become more significant with prolonged use.
Given the special considerations for medication use in patients with renal insufficiency, safety was one of the core considerations of this subgroup analysis. Safety analysis showed that the incidence of adverse events and serious adverse events in the Shexiang Baoxin Pill group was comparable to that in the placebo group, and its use in patients with coronary heart disease and renal insufficiency does not pose additional safety risks.
Conclusion
The Shexiang Baoxin Pill MUST series of studies has constructed a complete evidence map from “A to W” using modern evidence-based methods, completing the transformation of traditional Chinese medicine from Eastern experience to global evidence through internationally standardized study designs, quantifiable endpoint indicators, and long-term follow-up data. This is not only a scientific self-validation of a famous Chinese medicine formula but also provides a replicable paradigm for the evidence-based evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine, marking that traditional Chinese medicine now has the ability to articulate its scientific connotation under unified international rules, effectively driving the transition from traditional practice to scientific validation.