In 1929 Mr. Yu Hui Guan felt that China was behind in scientific developments and that this would lead to the disintegration of Chinese Medicine.  He made it his personal mission to save Chinese Medicine by modernizing it.  Mr. Yu established a Chinese Medicine factory in Shanghai, and being a devout Buddhist, contemplating the phrase “Our merciful Buddha rescues all living creatures” named his factory Foci, or “Benevolent Buddha”.  It was then called the Shanghai Foci Medicine Factory. 

Mr. Yu eagerly incorporated the technological innovations of his time.  His vision was to modernize and improve Chinese medicine through science, and his factory spearheaded the use of mechanical equipment in herb extraction.  Beginning with “ancestor of yin tonics”, the formula Liu Wei Di Huang San, Mr. Yu developed extracted, condensed Liu Wei Di Huang Wan (Six Flavor Rehmannia Pills).  This process formed the basis of Foci’s extraction technology, and resulted in many other formulas in pill form, such as its award-winning Jin Gui Shen Qi Wan (Golden Cabinet Pills). Mr. Yu was eminently successful in taking classical formulas and producing them in a way to maximize quality and efficacy.  He essentially transformed what was then considered outdated folk remedies into modern medicine.  Foci products became known for their quality, efficacy and ease of use, and in 1931 became China’s first exporter of prepared Chinese medicines with exports to southeast Asia and neighboring Japan.

Renamed the Lanzhou Foci Pharmaceutical Factory in 1956 after moving to Gansu province and then Lanzhou Foci Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in 2000, Foci has been in the national top ten of Chinese Medicine exporters for the last ten years.  Presently, Foci holds 48 licenses for export products, and manufactures over 300 products for export to 27 countries.  Its Min Shan Brand is a registered trademark in all 27 distributor countries, where they are so popular and well known that they are affectionately referred to simply as “Lanzhou Pills”.

For 80 years, Foci has been the leader in this dosage form, and its pills and brands have become synonymous worldwide with safe, high quality, efficacious Chinese medicines.