Drugs and the PLA

I first got acquainted with 999 皮炎平 when I was backpacking in China during the 1990s. A new product from a new company, it’s a steroid cream that worked well for rashes and itches. I loved it.

However, before 1990, such products were not readily available to the public. Drug manufacturing was once strictly under the control of the military. Chemists working for pharmaceutical plants held military ranks and their products were only supplied to hospitals, army camps and certain government institutions.

When Deng and Hu took over from the ailing Mao in the 1970s, they found that these factories were going bankrupt. Instead of just closing them down, they decided to set up new plants and mass produce for public consumption.

999 was run by the PLA’s General Logistics Department. Shanhaidan when it was first created, was managed by The Second Artillery Group. At one time, the PLA ran 400 pharmaceutical companies. Today, most of them have merged or joined with foreign companies. A few remained “private” – like Huawei and they cannot shake off their military past.