Guizhou province is known for its herbal resources and has turned its pharmaceutical sector into a pillar industry over the past decade, and now has 74 pharmaceutical companies and an industrial structure that covers a diverse range of biological products, Chinese patent medicines, pharmaceutical chemicals, medical consumables, and Chinese medicinal decoctions. Its Miao medicine won the "Best Cultural Practice Contributing to Sustainable Development" award, for 2005, from UNESCO. It has the Xiuwen Zhazuo Pharmaceutical Industry and Wudang Pharmaceutical Industry parks, with an output value of more than 100 million yuan each, and 22 pharmaceutical companies, including Yibai Pharmaceutical, Tongjitang Pharmaceutical, Jianxing Pharmaceutical, Jianxing Pharmaceutical, and Xintian Pharmaceutical. Yibai, Tongjitang and Shenqi now bear the "China Famous Trademark" title.

The city's four-year development plan (2009-2012) called for the Guiyang modern pharmaceutical industry to have a total industrial output value of of 14.5 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) and industrial added value output of 6.03 billion yuan, in 2012, The city also planned to plant 1,000 – 2,000 hectares of land in herbs and Incubation bases, develop 10-15 new national-level medicines and develop two technology projects at the provincial or national level. Guiyang wants to push construction of traditional Chinese medicinal herb bases with standardized management in seed selection, planting, picking, and processing to produce medicinal herbs that meet national standards. These bases can encourage institutes to increase processing and development to improve the added value of the herbs and drive the pharmaceutical enterprises of Guiyang.