Finally, a Chinese medicine manufacturer went public on NYSE with ticker TCM!

March 19, 2007

I think this is opening up a new chapter in the Chinese medicine

community in this part of the world. Last Friday, a Guilin based

Chinese medicine manufacturer,TongJiTang (this is not Tong Ren Tang

anyway), went public on New York Stock Exchange " in a market with no

appetite for medical breakthrough that happened a few millennia

ago " . For those interested in this story, here is an article for

further detail:

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Here are some interesting paragraphs about the company and TCM in

general in China:

" Unlike Big Pharma blockbuster drugs from the West that have been

heavily marketed only to produce sometimes deadly side effects, the

herbal ingredient in TongJiTang's flagship product -- Xianling

Gubao, a treatment for osteoporosis -- has been in use for thousands

of years.

Traditionally, the medicine was prepared by boiling herbs at home.

TongJiTang extracts the active ingredients into pills and capsules,

helping to ensure more consistency in quality and dosage. In 2002,

China's State Food and Drug Administration approved Xianling Gubao

for use in hospitals and later as an over-the-counter drug in

pharmacies.

Xianling Gubao accounts for 77% of TongJiTang's sales. It's

prescribed through 2,300 hospitals and marketed to the 29 million

Chinese who suffer from osteoporosis. And China's overall population

is aging: Six years ago, 10.5% of China's population was over 60,

and by the end of the decade the percentage will rise to 12.6%.

But despite China's efforts to embrace and enhance Western medicine,

the market for traditional Chinese medicine continues to grow just

as fast. Sales of medicine doubled in 2004 to 547 billion Renmimbi

($66 billion), with traditional medicine making up 31% of total

sales in both years. "

The drum of TCM globalization beats loudly and here they come...

Dan Wen

Honso USA, Inc.

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