It is not the small brown pills that stand out at the Shanghai No. 1 TCM factory, produced by shiny machines inside pressure-controlled rooms and supervised by technicians in white coats. It is the ingredients.
Like any western drugmaker, Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals, the joint owner, produces neatly printed packets of medicine to high-quality standards, complete with holograms to dissuade counterfeiters. But the contents include musk, mandarin orange peel and cow’s liver.
SHPL, part of Hutchison Whampoa, one of Hong Kong’s most powerful conglomerates, is capitalising on surging demand for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is attracting businesses and investors domestically and abroad.