Claiming to be a century-old Hong Kong product, but actually made inland: the rampant "Hong Kong old brands" have deceived 106 million.

Ask AI · How does Hong Kong’s big pharma chains leverage a registration loophole to carry out cross-border fraud?

This image is AI-generated

Without consumers even realizing it, they become an endless supply of “blood bags.”

Source丨Kuai Dao Caijing Finance (ID：kuaidaocaijing)

Author丨Zhu Mo

Image丨AI-generated

One step ahead on the way of “a better man with a longer reach,” the swindlers’ “visual tricks” have upgraded again and again.

In March this year, a netizen placed an order for tonggu ointment on the “Official Flagship Store of Hong Kong Big Pharmacy Co., Ltd.” But when the package was opened and inspected closely, the manufacturer listed was actually “Jiangxi Ruifu Xiang Technology Co., Ltd.” — that’s right, not Hong Kong, but Jiangxi.

Confused, the netizen immediately contacted customer service. The reply was: “Hong Kong costs too much. We do contract manufacturing in Mainland China. We are the authentic brand of Hong Kong Big Pharmacy Co., Ltd., and we jointly built a factory for R&D and production in the Mainland.” But when the netizen asked to see Hong Kong’s Department of Health approval documents or a brand authorization letter, the conversation went nowhere.

Judging purely from appearances, this store looks “legitimate” and has an impressive background. The store avatar uses a Traditional Chinese character LOGO, with conspicuous labels reading “Since 1941” and “A century-old time-honored store.” The product packaging is also full of “Hong Kong style,” and the fan base reaches hundreds of thousands.

However, according to Tianyancha, Hong Kong Big Pharmacy Co., Ltd. was established in July 2021 and is not even 5 years old. The company has also registered trademarks such as “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy Co., Ltd.” and authorized other companies to use them. After this came to light, multiple media outlets conducted follow-up reporting. They searched on the Tianyancha platform for “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” in the names, and found more than a thousand results.

On e-commerce platforms, stores using the name “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” are even more countless. Their products range widely: huojing oil, shampoo powder, tonggu ointment, acne-relief cream, eye drops, mouthwash, and more.

Behind them, almost all are small micro-enterprises established for only about a year. In Hong Kong, these companies have no physical retail storefronts and no qualifications for producing or selling medicines. On the records of the Hong Kong Department of Health, you can’t find any listing showing them as licensed drug dealers. Their place of origin is in the Mainland; their companies are in the Mainland. The only thing is those oversized Traditional Chinese characters on the signboard, trying to package everything as a “Hong Kong-made” century-old time-honored brand.

What’s even more jaw-dropping is the massive profit from fake Hong Kong medicines. A set of “tonggu ointment” that may cost no more than 20 yuan in total production costs can be sold for 88 yuan or even higher in livestream rooms with ease. The profit margin is several times higher. With such businesses operating, in five years they created sales revenue of 106 million yuan and more than 1.4 million orders—behind which lies extremely significant illegal profits.

Through a carefully designed chain of “shell companies + Mainland contract manufacturing + false advertising,” these “Hong Kong time-honored brands” each make a fortune in the soil that enables “copycats” to survive, while consumers, unknowingly, become an endless supply of “blood bags.”

****** Using a “time-honored brand” as a credential—how does Hong Kong Big Pharmacy fabricate the truth?**

When Mainland tourists go to Hong Kong, they often pick up a few boxes of Double Flying Man, huojing oil, and Wong Tong Yee in drugstores at street corners in Mong Kok or Causeway Bay.

The reason this perception has become so deeply ingrained is due to Hong Kong’s developed pharmaceutical market and a strict regulatory system for the pharmacy profession. According to Hong Kong’s “Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance,” all medicines sold in Hong Kong must be registered, and pharmacies must operate under a license. Also, Hong Kong law does not allow the sale of drugs containing antibiotics; all antibiotics-containing medicines can only be purchased in pharmacies with a physician’s certificate issued by a licensed doctor in Hong Kong. Such standardized management has helped build an image in the minds of Mainland consumers that Hong Kong medicines are high-quality.

Precisely because of this built-in trust, it provides “unlawful merchants” an opportunity. On the one hand, consumers believe Hong Kong medicines have higher standards and safer ingredients, especially when dealing with chronic illnesses or difficult-to-diagnose conditions—this often leads to a “foreign monks chant scriptures better” mindset.

On the other hand, registering a company in Hong Kong is relatively simple. Merchants can easily set up a company under the name “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy,” and then after registering a trademark in the Mainland, authorize the Mainland factory to do contract manufacturing. By leveraging the convenience of Hong Kong’s company registration system and Mainland consumers’ misconceptions about “Hong Kong goods,” they form a black industry chain with low cost and high gross margins—thereby achieving “cross-border arbitrage.”

Let’s unpack this “combo move” step by step. The first step is low-cost registration, putting on the “Hong Kong-funded” facade. You should know that registering a company named “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy Co., Ltd.” in Hong Kong costs only a few thousand Hong Kong dollars. The threshold is low, and the process is simple. These companies basically have no physical drugstore in Hong Kong and have not obtained any drug dealer license issued by the Hong Kong Department of Health. But this shell can easily be given the ability to command a premium as “authentic Hong Kong goods” and “century-old heritage” in the Mainland market, laying the groundwork for the subsequent “wordplay.”

The second step is contract manufacturing in the Mainland, blurring the product’s attributes. Once you remove the packaging of “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy,” its place of production and shipping destination are all in the Mainland. The clients are contract factories in places such as Henan, Jiangxi, Hebei, Hunan, etc. What they do contract manufacturing for is nothing more than a few-yuan-cost opium-sugar style candies and solid beverages. When you check their implemented standards, they are all “Jianyong approval numbers” or enterprise standards—these are merely ordinary health products or daily chemicals, not legitimate “Guoyao approval numbers” or “medical device approval numbers.”

To maximize legal exemption, the merchants of “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” only use tiny, unobtrusive text in an inconspicuous corner of the packaging to mark: “This product cannot replace medicines and medical devices for treatment.”

The third step is false advertising—precisely harvesting trust. First, they fabricate history, claiming “Since 1841” and “a century-old brand.” Then, they use medical-sounding terms like “relieves muscle stiffness and improves circulation” and “clears hemorrhoids and cleanses the lungs” to hint at therapeutic effects. Finally, they fabricate endorsements, using labels such as “Hong Kong-style secret formula” and “recommended by world champions” to dispel the last bit of doubt from consumers.

With everything ready except the east wind, the “hunt” is next.

**** E-commerce platforms become a “severe disaster zone”

All major e-commerce platforms are a severe disaster zone for these “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” sellers. After all, relying on online sales lets them both bypass the strict scrutiny applied to physical pharmacies and quickly harvest consumers by leveraging traffic advantages.

Although, according to China’s “Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Drug Sales,” the third-party platform should fulfill its audit and management responsibilities, and strengthen inspections and monitoring of illegal and noncompliant behaviors by businesses on the platform, in real operations many platforms have loopholes in their review mechanisms. Some merchants can even pass review easily just by using P图 (Photoshop editing).

For example, some product images directly steal the historical background from the former incarnation of Watsons. Some products’ packaging also lists nonexistent Hong Kong addresses. According to a report by Southern Weekly (Nanfang Zhoumo), the reporter purchased multiple products from the official flagship store of Hong Kong Big Pharmacy and submitted packaging information for two products—tonggu ointment and qshi pills—to the Hong Kong Department of Health for inquiry. The response was that the two products are not registered pharmaceutical products in Hong Kong, nor licensed drug dealers who have obtained a license in Hong Kong. However, the e-commerce platform did not detect anything unusual.

As for product management, platforms generally won’t investigate where products come from, or whether there are relevant qualifications. Once a shop passes the review, it can sell many products.

Because of this, merchants become even more brazen and “recklessly boast” in livestream rooms everywhere. In livestreams, hosts vividly and movingly tell stories about “ancient methods and formulas” and “supervised by veteran masters from Hong Kong,” exaggerating the product’s purported benefits to the extreme. Ordinary ointment stickers are claimed to be a “miracle medicine that can cure bone pain at the root,” while ordinary face creams are said to “remove all acne.” When some stubborn consumers raise doubts in the livestream, they are treated as trolls and directly kicked out of the livestream room.

Even more interesting is that these so-called “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” sellers also release videos to “debunk each other as fakes.” They all claim they are the only authentic one, and even the counterfeiters have formed a so-called hierarchy of contempt.

The harm from this scam goes far beyond economic losses. The most worrying part is the potential health risk. Most of these products are produced according to ordinary standards for daily goods or cosmetics. They have not undergone the strict safety and efficacy testing required for medicines. Their ingredient labeling is vague, and the actual ingredients cannot be guaranteed.

One “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” tonggu ointment contains “radix Strychni”—but it does not state whether it is “raw radix Strychni” (not processed) or “processed radix Strychni.” It may differ by only one character, but that is crucial: “raw radix Strychni” is toxic or a strong medicinal herb, while “processed radix Strychni” has stronger medicinal properties and larger side effects. After use, it may cause adverse reactions such as skin allergy, dizziness, nausea, and more.

Similar situations appear in another product called “Yan-Zhaying King” (itch-relief king). Its packaging does not explain whether it uses “raw dogbane/“langdu” venom” or “processed dogbane/“langdu” venom.” That is really scary…

Consumers originally seek health relief, but they may end up suffering new physical harm instead. On platforms such as Black Cat Complaints, complaints about skin redness, swelling, allergies, ineffectiveness, or even discomfort after using such “Hong Kong medicines” are frequently reported. And for other products that claim they can remove dampness, clear the lungs, or lower blood sugar—pills that add more than ten kinds of Chinese herbal ingredients—long-term use may more likely lead to kidney metabolic function disorders.

But the path to safeguarding rights is often exceptionally difficult because the merchants’ main entities are concealed and the cases involve cross-regional operations.

**** Driven by huge profits, they “start over”

On the one hand, the products sold in these “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” stores are not medicines, but health supplements and foods. They operate in the regulatory gray area. The current regulations have limited enforcement strength against such “borderline” behaviors. Besides, online sales are widespread in both volume and reach, while regulators have limited manpower and resources.

On the other hand, although the Hong Kong Department of Health responds that the relevant companies are not licensed drug dealers, it has no jurisdiction over Mainland sales activities. There is a lack of cross-regional regulatory cooperation and oversight. These gaps in coordination increase the difficulty of cracking down. When you end up paying money for consequences, consumers become the “vulnerable” side instead.

In fact, regarding “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” openly fabricating products, there was already a previous exposure and cleanup in 2025. Multiple Mainland regulatory departments imposed penalties on the involved companies, with fines ranging from 1,900 yuan to 220k yuan.

However, after the companies were penalized, they quickly came back. The actual controller changed the operating entity—“start over with a new setup”—swapping to a new place and continuing to sell on e-commerce platforms.

The fake-making motivation of these “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” brands comes from astonishing profits. Take the investigation results from the Xiamen City Market Regulation Department as an example. In that locality, a company set up a “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy XX Flagship Store.” It sold 220k units of the involved products, with total sales revenue exceeding 106 million yuan. Compared with sales revenue above 1.41M, these fines are just “small change.”

At this point, the truth is already clear. Today’s “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” flooding e-commerce platforms behind all this is an extremely vicious operating model: a company or individual in the Mainland registers a company in Hong Kong, obtains related trademarks of “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy,” authorizes Mainland contract manufacturers to produce the goods, and then sells them nationwide through e-commerce livestream rooms. Not only is the brand history purely fictional, it is also entirely a form of geographic deception. The so-called “century-old time-honored brand” is nothing more than a registered trademark repeatedly authorized and slapped on everywhere.

Trace it further back, and the “bursting” of “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” is only a snapshot. This “clinging to a well-known brand” approach or “origin filter” trick is not new. In mid-2024, the “Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncake” incident also caused an uproar. The fake Hong Kong brand “Meicheng Mooncakes” promoted by Sanqi Yang (Big Yang Xiaoge) was identified by the joint investigation team of Hefei City as false advertising. The Hefei authorities ultimately confiscated Sanqi Yang’s illegal gains and imposed a total fine of 68.9491 million yuan.

Breaking the cycle of copycats is far from something that can be done overnight. As the main sales battlefield, e-commerce platforms’ review of merchants’ qualifications, product batch numbers, and advertising content should not stop at “formal compliance.” When brands like “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” appear in clusters, platforms should establish a warning mechanism and proactively verify the source of their trademarks and the qualifications of their products.

In the regulatory side, cross-regional oversight cooperation also needs to be strengthened. For “cross-border labeling” behavior, the law should clearly define its legal characterization to increase the cost of penalties. Credit blacklists should be established to prevent unlawful merchants from “changing the shell and being reborn.” Consumers should also keep their eyes open: understand product qualifications. “Guoyao approval numbers” are the only unique identity proof for medicines. Don’t blindly place orders just because you’re briefly carried away.

The chaos surrounding “Hong Kong Big Pharmacy” is not only a mirror that reveals the truth, but also a warning bell. Only when regulation is in place, platforms fulfill their responsibilities, and consumers stay vigilant—so that multiple parties form a joint force—can scams like this have nowhere to hide.

================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Source：Kuai Dao Caijing Finance (ID：kuaidaocaijing)