Tongjitang Chinese Medicines is scheduled to make its IPO next week. As always, the IPO of a Chinese company sheds some light on how the pharmaceutical business is conducted in China. Tongjitang makes modernized forms of traditional Chinese medicines for the Chinese market. That means the company specializes in pill, tablet, gel or powder formulations of traditional herbal medications that the Chinese have been using for as long as one thousand years. Its main offering is Xianling Gubao, a formulation of barrenwort that is intended for osteoporosis (barrenwort is sometimes used as a ground cover in the US). The midpoint of the range, $16, implies a value for Tongjitang of $535 million. We look at the offering...
