Tablet was a less and later advertised form of drug and drug consumption than pills or liquid. While pills and liquid medicines were to be found as early as 1914, "tablets" appeared only in 1934 and was almost confined to the British newspaper North China Daily News. It appeared even later (1941) in the Chinese paper Shenbao (Phyllosan tablet) and remained exceptional.

Yet in 1949, tablets found their ways into a variety of forms in the Shenbao: Ascorbic Acid Tablets, Calc. Gluconate w/D Tab., Calc. Gluconate Tablets, Thiamine Hci Tablet, Riboflavin Tablets