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All Start from a Bold Attempt
Abraham Chan - from building houses to making medicines
“I won’t stick to the thought about Chinese medicine stressing traditional medical recipes or secret recipes. On the contrary, I want to convert Chinese medicine into a medical science widely accepted by the public, to modernize Chinese medicine and make it popular. It has been our policy to place quality and customers as first priority.” With this bold vision, Abraham Chan, Chairman of PuraPharm Group who knew nothing about Chinese medicine before, has turned himself into an outstanding talent in this field in Hong Kong.
The only Hong Kong enterprise selling Concentrated Chinese Medicine Granules in the Mainland
As introduced by Abraham Chan, PuraPharm commenced scientific research in 1998 with the idea of modernizing Chinese medicines. Among the 700 or more concentrated Chinese pharmaceutical products, over 500 are made from single formula, and over 200 are concentrated Chinese medicine granules based on combo formula, for example, Liu Wei Di Huang Wan (六味地黃丸), Bazhen Soup (八珍湯), Siwu Soup (四物湯),etc. PuraPharm hopes to develop more types of medicines in the future to meet the demand of Chinese medical practitioners. In addition to being widely recognized in Hong Kong, the products of PuraPharm are also granted with the approval from State Food and Drug Administration, turning PuraPharm into the only foreign enterprise among the six Chinese medicine factories approved by the Chinese government to produce and sell concentrated Chinese medicine granules.
According to Abraham Chan, as PuraPharm is the only Hong Kong enterprise selling concentrated Chinese medicine granules in Mainland, he expects that its products will be adopted by some 200 hospitals in over 10 provinces this year, including the well-known hospitals like Beijing Xuan Wu Hospital and Shanghai Shuguang Hospital. In order to accommodate the needs of the Mainland hospitals, PuraPharm has started providing the training of electronic medicine dispensing system to hospitals. He said, “Our electronic system includes auxiliary equipment such as packaging machine, mixer and electronic scale to ensure the preciseness of the amount dispensed. This new dispensing system not only gives a taste of Chinese medicine modernization, but also attracts customers who found it troublesome to take Chinese medicine in the past to choose using Chinese herbal treatment again. This can help promote the application of Chinese medicines.”
Sticking to traditional recipes will hinder the development of Chinese medicine
Abraham Chan, the president of the Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association, stressed that the popularization and modernization of Chinese medicine cannot merely stick to the thought about traditional recipes and secret recipes. According to Abraham Chan, while inheriting the essence of Chinese medicines, continuous progress should be made to modernize Chinese medicine and make it a world-wide medical recipe. Although this is a long and not easy journey, we must start taking action. He said, “our promotion of Chinese medicine granules is the first step heading for Chinese medicine modernization. We hope to promote Chinese medicine modernization world-wide step by step.”
As stated by Abraham Chan, the commercialization of the results obtained from scientific research through cooperation between factory owners and universities as well as scientific research institutions is the future direction of developing Chinese pharmaceutical products. He said, “The development model for western medicines also applies to Chinese medicines, as it is not possible for a company to possess all the professional talents. The cooperation between factory owners and universities or scientific institutions not only makes good use of its scientific research results, but also reduces the resources employed in research and development. Both parties can be benefited. Besides, the scientific research capability in the universities in Hong Kong is of world standard, not making good use of it is just a waste.”
Hoping for the government to introduce auxiliary measures for Chinese Medicine development
According to Abraham Chan, the development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong should be supported by the following efforts:
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It is hoped that the government can take charge of the overall planning of Chinese medicine development, formulating Chinese medicine development policies, introducing suitable auxiliary measures, applying the same vigor of supporting Disneyland and tourism to the Chinese medicine industry.
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Strengthening the cooperation between China and Hong Kong, actively procuring bilateral agreements between China and Hong Kong, promoting bilateral pharmaceutical product registration to pave way for Hong Kong merchants to enter the market with a population of 1.3 billion.
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Standardizing Chinese medicine industry so as to steer Chinese medicine to the road of modernization and professionalism. It can refer to the recent standardization work undergone by other regions like Mainland China, Canada, Singapore, etc, including, the promotion of different Chinese patent medicine and the registration of Chinese medicine decoction, launching the registration of all health products and Chinese medicine practitioners’ training and qualification certifications, etc.
Abraham Chan who continuously opens a path for Chinese medicines with new thought said, “In the process of popularizing and modernizing Chinese medicine, the Government should take courage to formulate relevant policies, otherwise, there will be a danger for Chinese medicine industry in Hong Kong to be marginalized.”
Success lies on new thought and bold attempt
Abraham Chan is the brother of the famous singer, Anges Chan. Prior to devoting himself to the Chinese medicine industry, he was engaged in housing construction. As soon as he found the excellent curative effect of Lingzhi while working in China, he participated in the manufacture of Chinese health products in 1991, and founded Vita Green Health Products. In 1998, he decided to start a new enterprise on his own and established PuraPharm, specializing in the concentrated Chinese medicines for professional use and business has been running bigger and bigger. Recalling the set up of the enterprise, Abraham Chan told the media, “I love all the new things. This is inspired by an uncle. Ng Lai Long, music director of the former Rediffusion Television (RTV), who asked me many years ago, “Have you noticed that people writing good songs don’t know music? Do you know the reason? It is because they are not confined by music theories.” When I founded the health product company later, it struck me that running a health product business is similar to composing music. Let’s put it in another way, like all other things, as long as you are creative enough, you can have achievement even if you are a layman.”
About PuraPharm Group
PuraPharm was established in 1998 with headquarters in Hong Kong. It has branches and administrative offices in Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, the USA and Canada.
Purapharm （Nanning） Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. is located Nanning New and High Technological Zone, Guangxi Province. It is a GMP Chinese medicine manufacturer with modernized and highly advanced production technologies. It is the only foreign company among the six enterprises which have obtained approval in producing Chinese medicine granules in the Mainland. The enterprise has created numerous brands like Puralin, Nong’s, Oncozac and Haveron in Hong Kong mainstream Chinese medicine market and the products are sold as far as the USA, Singapore, Canada, etc. In 2005, 95% of the hospitals with Chinese Medicine Department in Hong Kong have been equipped with Nong’s Chinese medicine granule pharmacy, taking up over 65% of the market share in Hong Kong. In 2005, Nong’s started to open the Mainland market and bring back the experience of standardized and modernized Chinese medicine operation to China. (Interviewed by Belinda Hui)
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