Localized production

China Associate (Group), based in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, is well-known in Africa's pharmaceutical market. Since 1992, the company has been exporting medicines to Africa, where it quickly became an important supplier of medicine raw materials.

In 2003, it joined forces with China's Dandong Jinwan Group and Ethiopia's ZAF Pharmaceutical Plc. to create Sino-Ethiop Associate (Africa) Plc., a joint venture that produces 2 billion pill capsules each year.

The company was set up in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, as the country has rich resources of cattle bones, which can be extracted to produce gelatin - the raw material used in making pill capsules. The company thus makes optimal use of local resources to meet the growing demand in the African market.

Xie Xiaoyan, former Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, spoke highly of the joint venture's efforts in localized production. "This project sets a good model for Sino-Ethiopian cooperation. Pill capsules not only meet Ethiopia's growing needs, but also have been exported to neighboring countries, which boosts the country's industrialization development," said Xie at the opening ceremony of the second-phase production on December 14, 2013.

Compared with international pharmaceutical companies, Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises have the advantage of providing high-quality medicine at affordable price. On average, the price of a Chinese medicine is just one-third the price of the equivalent product overseas.

Other outstanding Chinese pharmaceutical companies, such as Guilin Pharma, Kunming Pharmaceutical Corp., and China Sinopharm International Corp., have also become well-known brands in Africa. Some have entered African countries' national procurement system, while others have established good sales channels, built their brands, and even set up local branches.

"While localizing their production abroad, Chinese companies should also consider local customers' habits," said Cao Jun, Deputy Director of Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases.

Legal support

Boubacar noted that Africa welcomes Chinese TCM companies, but only qualified enterprises and real products, adding that his country has heavy punishment for illegal medical practices and fake and shoddy medical products.

Guilin Pharma, a subsidiary of the Fosun Pharma Group, has signed a three-year agreement in 2016 with the African Collaborating Center for Pharmacovigilance, based in Ghana's capital Accra, for drug safety supervision, covering three of Guilin Pharma's anti-malaria drugs.

Guilin Pharma is the world's leading producer of artesunate - a medication used to treat malaria - and currently the only company producing WHO pre-qualified artesunate injections. The agreement is the first of its kind in Africa between a global pharmaceutical company and an African institution specializing in pharmacovigilance.

TCM has a long history in Africa, where it has been used for more than 50 years. In South Africa especially, the government has attached great importance to the development of TCM, and recognized the legal status of TCM as early as 2000, providing a legal support for its development in the country.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former South African Minister of Health and former African Union Commission Chairperson, extended a warm welcome to Beijing Tongrentang Africa's arrival in Johannesburg. The focus of TCM on prevention, rather than only treatment, means massive savings for South African people, she said at the company's opening ceremony last November.