Tongrentang Group, China's 300-year-old leading producer of traditional Chinese medicine, has built a modernized pharmaceutical production base at the Yizhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone in southern Beijing.

The production base, covering more than 123,4000 square meters,has eight up-to-date production lines, and cost 600 million yuan (72 million US dollars), said Kuang Guishen, general manager of theTongrentang Co., Ltd., a branch of the group.

The new base has a designed annual production capacity of 3 billion tablets, 4.4 million kg of granules, 4.5 million kg of pills and 200 capsules, among other products, which will help meetthe growing domestic demand for variety of medical products, Kuangsaid.

Currently, the supply of 30 kinds of Tongrentang brand products falls short of demand.

Tongrentang, once a royal drug firm in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is the country's most prestigious traditional pharmacy with500 outlets nationwide, and the operation of the new production base will enable the group's production to shift from ancient secret recipes to modern business management.

Tongrentang plans to increase the number of pharmacies dealing with its products in various parts of the country to 1,000 by 2008.

The pharmacy has a blueprint for becoming a transnational pharmaceutical company in five years, with the ultimate goal of becoming the world's largest brand for natural medicine.

Source:Xinhua.com