Chi-Med is the holding company of a pharmaceutical and healthcare group based primarily in China. Chi-Med is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. ("HWL"), an international corporation listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange which had an annual turnover of approximately US$45 billion in 2008 and approximately 220,000 employees in 54 countries worldwide as at 31 December 2008.

Chi-Med focuses on researching, developing, manufacturing and selling pharmaceuticals, and health oriented consumer products. Chi-Med was established in 2000 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of HWL when HWL identified three business development opportunities related to Traditional Chinese Medicine ("TCM"). These were drug research and development, China healthcare and consumer products. The overall aim of Chi-Med is to draw on the untapped wealth of knowledge and history of usage in the TCM industry to develop pharmaceutical and consumer products for the global market. Chi-Med's three businesses complement each other in pursuit of this aim.

Since establishment, Chi-Med has expanded beyond its base TCM business into the research and development of small molecule drugs as well as the expansion of health oriental consumer products.

Chi-Med's development focus is on modernised TCM pharmaceuticals. TCM refers to a range of traditional medical practices, including herbal medicines, which have developed over the course of several thousand years in China. It is a system of addressing human bodily dysfunction based on concepts and techniques that differ in fundamental respects from those of modern Western medicine. TCM is founded on different theories of the causes of sickness and functioning of the human organs and addresses the prevention and treatment of diseases in accordance with those theories.

The major conceptual difference of TCM compared with Western medicine is that TCM sees a person as a whole and strives for an overall internal balance, with diagnosis and treatment based on this holistic view of the patient, whereas Western medicine analyses bodily functions separately and focuses on diagnosis and treatment of specific illnesses and causes of disease. TCM emphasises restoration and maintenance of the equilibrium of bodily functions in the belief that the body has the potential to cure itself, if stimulated in the correct way.

TCM is prepared from raw materials including plants, animals and minerals, with the majority derived from herbal sources. Many herbs and plants produce chemical compounds which can have therapeutic actions in humans. Herbal medicines based on traditional knowledge include remedies such as Echinacea and St John's Wort and modern Western medicines including codeine and quinine (derived from the poppy and cinchona plants respectively). Traditionally, TCM required lengthy preparation by boiling and simmering raw materials according to ancient recipes, with the medicine consumed in the form of soup or as pellets. Usually each recipe combined several herbal ingredients tailored to the individual patient, with each herb performing a specific role.

Modern TCM combines traditional theories with modern production methods and extraction techniques. It includes pharmaceutical drugs in convenient capsule, pill and injection forms similar to Western medicines, as well as the traditional form of tailor-made prescriptions of raw materials. Modernised TCM pharmaceuticals are processed drugs derived from TCM ingredients and are categorised in China as prescription drugs or over-the-counter drugs, depending on the product.

A number of TCM products use ingredients derived from animal sources, as well as herbs and other plants. China has enacted a series of laws and regulations to protect endangered species, including acceding to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), promulgating laws to protect and control wildlife medicinal materials, and to protect precious wildlife plants and animals. All companies within Chi-Med have complied with the aforesaid laws and regulations concerning endangered species in China and none of the products produced Chi-Med relies on any endangered species on the CITES list.

• Drug research and development - Through Hutchison MediPharm, Chi-Med researches and develops TCM-derived botanical, semi-synthetic natural product drugs and synthetic single chemical entity drugs for the global and the Chinese pharmacentical market. Chi-Med focus on the oncology and auto-immune therapeutic areas.
• China healthcare - Chi-Med has operation joint ventures in the major, fast growing and still highly fragmented China TCM market: Hutchison Baiyunshan; Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals; and Hutchison Healthcare. They develop, manufacture and market TCM pharmacenticals and health supplements both prescription and over-the-counter Chi-Med plans to estabish further joint ventures in the near future.
• Consumer products - Chi-Med is developing "Sen" as a quality TCM consumer brand in TCM medicines and treatments, food & beverage, and skin and body care products through its own network of retail stores with the aim also of developing licensing deals with large-scale consumer products companies. In late 2009, Chi-Med entered the organic and natural consumer products market in Asia through its partnership with the Hain Celestial Group (NYSE: HAIN).