What’s good for China’s modern healthcare sector is also proving healthy medicine for a much older group of revered institutions – some with hundreds of years of history – engaged in the sale of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Tong Ren Tang, arguably China’s most storied TCM company, has been leading an M&A charge sweeping China’s medical industry with a wave of acquisitions in its quest to build a modern healthcare kingdom based on ancient Chinese medicines. Now, it’s further extending its tendrils in the global capital market with the recent Hong Kong IPO application by subsidiary Beijing Tong Ren Tang Healthcare Investment Co. Ltd., which operates its chain of hospitals, clinics and other medical institutions.
Tong Ren Tang’s story traces back more than 300 years ago to 1665, the eighth year of Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi, when imperial physician Yue Xianyang left his post to establish the first Tong Ren Tang Pharmacy in Beijing. The outlet was renowned for its uncompromising devotion to quality, regardless of time and costs, in the labor-intensive and complex process of preparing traditional medicines. Later, Qing Emperor Yongzheng would designate Tong Ren Tang as the Imperial Pharmacy, with its medicines exclusively certified by and supplied to the Qing royal families.