‘Hong Kong Pharmacy’ Isn’t Hong Kong. China Pulls 35 Stores

"Hong Kong Pharmacy" doesn't exist in Hong Kong — no registered stores, no listed products, nothing on file with the city's Department of Health. China's national Traditional Chinese Medicine regulator confirmed as much on the evening of Aug. 31, ordering 35 online stores trading under that name delisted for selling mainland-made balms and pills as "founded in 1841" Hong Kong heritage products.

The National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine said platforms including JD.com, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu(Rednote), TikTok and Kuaishou pulled 35 storefronts, 3,318 product links and 342 advertisements, and blocked another 460 pieces of ad material, after finding the sellers held no valid trademark registration or authorization from any genuine Hong Kong brand. The products at issue — a muscle-and-joint rub called toublast balm (透骨膏) and a pill marketed as "wet-dispelling" medicine (无湿丸) — are registered as daily-use goods, not pharmaceuticals. Regulators said the violation was advertising unproven pain-relief and medical benefits, not selling counterfeit drugs.

By Sept. 1, stores still trading under the "Hong Kong Pharmacy" name on at least one major platform were selling largely the same lineup, Tencent News reported — now carrying a new warning that "this product cannot substitute for medicine," with the "founded in 1841" and "century-old brand" language quietly deleted.

That pattern — same products, new disclaimer, old brand story — isn't new. A year-long investigation by China Consumer News, republished via Guangming Online, traced three separate "Hong Kong Pharmacy"-branded storefronts to mainland factories with no Hong Kong connection at all.

One shop, "Global Health Product Agency," sold a glucosamine balm claiming a "182-year-old brand," a "Hong Kong National Medicine Research Institute" that had "invested hundreds of millions of yuan over seven years" developing it, and five real Hong Kong pharmacies — including Watsons and Mannings — as stockists. A Hong Kong consumer who visited those pharmacies that June found none of the products for sale; staff said they had never carried them. Reporters traced the balm to a factory in Henan registered under a Hong Kong-incorporated holding company, and its compliance paperwork turned out to be a regional health-product filing number, not a drug approval. Asked to prove the 182-year history, customer service could not, and instead issued an instant refund.

A second shop, Jiangcuitang Pharmacy, sold an anti-itch balm advertised with fabricated customer testimonials — a grandmother whose 20-year skin condition supposedly cleared up, a student "cured" of a three-year rash — traced to a Henan manufacturer with no link to the marketed name. Its retail entity had at one point changed its registered business name, from one Changsha pharmacy name to another, while continuing to sell the same products under the same "Hong Kong Pharmacy" branding.

A third, Shendantang Pharmacy, sold a pain balm claiming to treat 16 different conditions, including rheumatism and disc injuries; the product turned out to be a Hubei-made antibacterial cream, and its brand holding company had been incorporated in Hong Kong only in mid-2024.

Company registry data cited in the investigation found close to 200 businesses registered in Hong Kong with "Hong Kong Pharmacy" in their name — a byproduct, one intellectual-property consultant told reporters, of mainland trademark rules that bar Chinese-character marks reading "香港大藥房" from direct registration, pushing sellers to feature the phrase prominently on packaging instead, where trademark law doesn't reach.

Tuesday's notice is the regulator's first formal enforcement action since complaints about the scheme surfaced in mainland media last year. It said it had referred the case to market-supervision authorities, who have not said whether the operators behind the 35 delisted stores face further penalties.