BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

CHINESE medicine brand, Beijing Tong Ren Tang, is looking to increase its brand awareness in the Sultanate, especially among the non-Chinese population, said Wang Yuling, general manager of the clinic’s Brunei branch.

“Many people don’t understand Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), so we want to impart more knowledge to the people (on what we do)” said Wang.

The Beijing Tong Ren Tang brand was created over 300 years ago, as the designated provider of medicine for the royal pharmacy, to the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty, for a duration of eight generations. It currently has branches worldwide, in over 40 countries and regions and is established in three business sectors; modern pharmacy, retail business and medical services.

The company’s only local branch has been in operation since August 4, 2009 but Wang says they now want to increase their customer base. “I think its because many people still don’t know about Tong Ren Tang” she said, adding “they know the brand name, but they do not know what (services we provide)”.

She cited reports of a study conducted for one of their more popular products, “Angong Niuhuang Wan”, which had a seventy-six per cent success rate (of varying degrees) in improving craniopathy patients’ conditions and level of conciousness. “Most people in China will buy a stock of these to keep in their house, even though it’s one of our higher priced treatments.” said Wang of the brand’s strong recognition and reputation.

In Seria, the staff provide free consultations at local medical facilities to increase awareness of their services.

“The Chinese population is quite low here,” said Wang, adding that the medicine prescribed by the Tong Ren Tang doctors were not only for consumption by the Chinese so they wanted to encourage more people to try their medical services which include consultations, prescription of traditional herbal medicines consisting of natural herbs and plants, and acupuncture among others. “We do have Malay customers, but yes, the majority of our customer base at the moment is of Chinese descent,” she said.

Beijing Tong Ren Tang still abides by its decades old policies of non-stop production of medicine, no compromise on quality, with a duty and aim to “Foster Benevolence (and) Save Lives”. The ingredients for all medicines are sourced from Tong Ren Tang’s plantations in Beijing and then shipped by sea, through Malaysia, onto Brunei. “Our herbs and our processed medicine need to go through registration in Brunei as well, and that is very important,” said Wang of their strict adherence to quality and reliability. She also added that the two physicians available at the branch were qualified medical practitioners who had qualified under the Chinese government’s exam system to test Chinese physicians.

Liu HuiZheng, Chief Chinese Physican, said, “(We) are a clinic that is approved by the Ministry of Health, so unlike ‘unofficial’ traditional medicine stores that don’t keep patient records … Tong Ren Tang’s physicians need to ask a lot of details when we meet customers on their first consultation”.

They also needed to be careful with recording the types of medicines they prescribed, she said. “Sometimes the patient does not even know what kind of medicine they are taking,” said Liu on the dangers of consuming medicines from unregistered physicians or pharmacies.

The branch, located in Kiulap’s Regent Square, will open for membership on June 1st, 2010.

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