Chinese investors could step in to fund a complementary medicine institute based at the University of Western Sydney that claims it is stricken by a lack of government money.

The director of the National Institute of Complementary Medicine said that on a recent trip to China he had found there was ¡°enormous interest¡± among investors in funding research into Chinese medicine in Australia.

¡°There¡¯s so much opportunity here in the complementary medicine space,¡¯¡¯ Alan Bensoussan .

Funding for research into complementary medicine has been controversial in Europe and North America due to criticism from scientists that it lacks an evidential basis.

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But in China, traditional medicine is widely used and accepted alongside more scientifically rigorous treatments.

Professor Bensoussan said that the Institute's annual research budget of A$4 million, which comes largely from industry and philanthropic donations, was a ¡°ridiculously small amount¡±.

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In Australia, 0.2 per cent of the National Health and Medical Research Council¡¯s annual A$750 million is put towards complementary and alternative medicine. But the Australian reported that a number of advocates for complementary medicine were now calling on the government to boost state funding for the controversial research.

In 2014 a campaigner for ethical medical advertising resigned in protest from La Trobe University in Melbourne after the institute struck a multi-million dollar agreement to test the products of a major seller of complementary medicine.

Ken Harvey, who was an adjunct associate professor in La Trobe¡¯s School of Public Health, claimed that the tie-up with the firm Swisse could damage the university¡¯s reputation and cause a ¡°fundamental conflict of interest¡±.?

david.matthews@tesglobal.com