Anhui Offers A Healthy Prescription for China Business (Part 1)

The combination of a large population with diverse eco-systems makes places such as Anhui especially attractive for all phases of China business related to health care. More than a third of all Chinese uses traditional herbal medicine to manage their health issues (Lin, 2001). Traditional Chinese medicine can be modernized and upgraded by using professional analytical and quality assurance techniques. Increasing numbers of people all over the world, including those in highly industrialized countries, turn to herbal products nowadays, and their standardization can draw in even higher numbers of users. Many doctors who have traditionally prescribed only western drugs could also switch to Chinese herbs if their quality attributes could be more assured.

Pharmacists and technicians from related fields have worked steadily over the years to improve production techniques for drugs from natural herbs (Lin, 2001). 2 distinct streams of new China business result: one is to introduce professionally made Chinese herbal products in other countries, and the other is to participate in efforts to modernize ancient Chinese herbal remedies. Local agronomy has much to do with sourcing top quality raw materials, which makes place such as Anhui especially suitable to establish a China business centered in herbal medicine. This part of China not only has a long heritage of pioneering herbal remedies, but has also taken a lead in establishing Good Agricultural Practices, which prevent contaminated or inferior quality products from reaching markets (Lin, 2001).

Pharmaceutical Lessons in China Business


International pharmaceutical companies report 40% annual growth in China business (Dowling, Einhorn, and Balfour, 2004). The country has emerged as a major center for clinical trials, and the government is seized of intellectual property issues. Health care spending rises by the day and demand spreads from traditional urban centers to the rural heartland. China is now in the top 10 list of pharmaceutical markets of the world, and cannot be ignored by any serious player in the field. Healthcare spending is disproportionately linked to GDP growth, so the frenetic growth of the Chinese economy implies a continuing and scorching pace of growth for pharmaceutical products in this country.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have traditionally shied away from original research in China because of piracy fears (Dowling, Einhorn, and Balfour, 2004). However, effective steps by Beijing to counter such moves can make novel organic synthesis and new genetic solutions major planks for China business. Clearly, the nation has superior resources for discoveries of new therapies, given its population size, racial diversity, and natural substances of plant, animal, and mineral origins. There is enormous potential to develop modern drugs out of the countless ancient remedies in which the country abounds. This is why leading pharmaceutical companies now race to establish research facilities in China.

Anhui Offers A Healthy Prescription for China Business (Part 2)