Don't Fall for the Pharmacy's Tricks and Buy Overpriced Chinese Herbs
Yesterday evening, the son-in-law of a patient with reflux esophagitis came to me to adjust the prescription for his father-in-law. I had previously prescribed five doses of Chinese herbs for the old man, and they heard the effects were quite good; only the problem of dry, hardened stools had not been completely resolved, so they hoped I could adjust the prescription for better results. In passing, the family member mentioned that my previous prescription was very expensive, 600 yuan per dose, and five days of medicine cost 3,000 yuan.
I was taken aback. I have never prescribed such an expensive formula. Let alone for reflux esophagitis, I would not dare prescribe such expensive formulas even for cancer patients, because prescribing such expensive formulas invites the patients' wrath. The formula I gave his father-in-law actually contained nothing particularly rare or costly; it was absolutely impossible for one dose to cost 600 yuan, or five days to cost 3,000. Most of my adult cancer patients do not even spend that much per month. My formula was Shenzhe Peiqi Tang with modifications, and even if I bought the herbs at the best pharmacy in Beijing, it would not have cost that much.
The formula was as follows: Taizishen (Pseudostellaria) 30 g, Tiandong (Asparagus root) 12 g, Maidong (Ophiopogon) 12 g, raw Zheshi (Hematite) 24 g (wrapped for decoction), Xuanfuhua (Inula flower) 10 g (wrapped for decoction), Fabanxia (processed Pinellia) 10 g, Roucongrong (Cistanche) 45 g, Zhimu (Anemarrhena) 15 g, Danggui (Chinese angelica) 10 g, Shidi (persimmon calyx) 10 g, Zhuru (bamboo shavings) 10 g, Dingxiang (clove) 6 g, Pugongying (dandelion) 30 g, Baishao (white peony) 10 g.
I copied out this prescription, had one dose made up, and took it to the Beijing Baitasi Pharmacy to have it priced. Baitasi Pharmacy is one of the best-regarded pharmacies in Beijing; its signboard was even written by the former Vice-Premier Wu Yi. After pricing, the total for this dose, including the SF Same-City delivery fee, came to 92.99 yuan. I then told the patient's family that they had been cheated by the pharmacy through various tricks; if they had receipts, they could complain to the local Price Bureau.
I had not previously paid much attention to this kind of problem. With many patients I simply write the formula and let them buy the herbs at their local pharmacy. I believe that fellow Chinese-medicine practitioners anywhere in the country, after seeing this prescription, would not think it unreasonably expensive. Yet unexpectedly, this patient paid such a high price buying the herbs locally.
I did not ask in detail how the pharmacy managed to sell such an ordinary Chinese-medicine prescription at the high price of 600 yuan a dose; that sales technique is almost supernatural. But Chinese medicine and pharmacy are one whole; if pharmacies have such low professional ethics, it greatly harms the reputation of Chinese medicine as a whole.
Perhaps pharmacies in many places behave this way, hiding behind the pretext that natural herbs are of good quality, and deceiving patients and their families into buying overpriced medicine. As the old saying goes, "Unless the markup is tenfold, a medicine is not sold." They have pushed this black-hearted saying to the extreme. Some pharmacies also vigorously promote herbs such as Cordyceps (Dongchong Xiacao), which are both expensive and lack real anticancer effect, claiming benefits for tumor patients, and swindling families out of the money meant to save their loved ones' lives.
There are also some Chinese-medicine physicians who loudly proclaim that Chinese medicine will perish because of Chinese herbs, shifting the blame for their own inadequate scholarship and inability to write effective formulas onto the quality of the herbs. Over the years I have always told patients that the quality of ordinary Chinese herbs at ordinary pharmacies is basically acceptable, and that the herb-quality problem is not as uncanny as some exaggerated online articles claim. If taking the medicine produces no effect at all, the first thing to suspect is that my formula is not suited to the condition; come back to me to adjust the prescription, or seek another skilled physician, rather than blaming the herbs. In my many years of experience, when the medicine matches the pattern, one bowl works immediately. As long as the physician is truly skilled and the formula is correct, even if the patient buys the most ordinary herbs at a local township pharmacy, the effect is immediate. Patients and their families need not be duped into acting as suckers and buying so-called rare and expensive medicinal materials.