Bear bile firm seeks expansion despite IPO pullout

Growing awareness

Citizens and animal advocates have been pleased to see Guizhentang's IPO failure and called for the elimination of bear bile farming, which was introduced to China in the early 1980s.

On popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, a post announcing the news and showing a photo of captive bears has been forwarded more than 7,700 times, with over 1,000 users leaving comments.

"This is a victory of conscience," wrote Weibo user "Ji Dan."

Consumers should boycott medicine containing bile extracted from live bears, said Zhang Ying, a 26-year-old translator who works at a state-owned company in Beijing.

"By doing so, we'll make Guizhentang's IPO impossible and eventually eliminate the whole industry," she said.

"Only by vigorously pushing forward the development of synthetic alternatives can the government stamp out the practice of bear bile extraction," said a former senior member of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia who requested anonymity.

Zhang Xiaohai, external affairs director of the Animals Asia Foundation, said the company's IPO termination will help the foundation avert trouble in future efforts to end bear bile harvesting.

"If Guizhentang had succeeded, our campaign would surely face resistance from numerous shareholders," Zhang said.

The Hong Kong-based organization has strongly campaigned against the bear bile maker's IPO plan for the past three years.

Zhang added that the enthusiastic involvement of Chinese citizens in their campaigns signals a growing awareness of animal rights in China.

Guizhentang's IPO pullout, however, will not end long-running debates that mainly center on whether the bears suffer when being milked for bile.

Bear bile, which has been used in TCM for 3,000 years, is believed to be an effective cure for liver and eye diseases, as well as fever.

China now has 68 legal bear bile farms that house over 10,000 black bears, according to the China Association of TCM.

Guizhentang has assured skeptics that it uses painless methods to milk the bears every day by temporarily inserting a fine catheter into their abdomens.

It promises the operation is not detrimental to the bears' health and is much more humane than a practice used decades ago that forced the animals to wear mental pipes inserted into their abdomens day and night.

But animal rights advocates argue that the new method fails to reduce suffering, as it also results in open, non-healing wounds.

In addition, bear bile producers, TCM experts and animal rights advocates also hold divergent opinions on whether the use of natural bear bile can be fully replaced by synthetic alternatives or other drugs.

Foreign pharmaceutical firms have produced ursodeoxycholic acid, the active therapeutic substance in bear bile, for decades. The synthetic drug is extensively used to treat gallstones and liver cancer worldwide.

"Culture should never be used as an excuse for animal mistreatment and the Chinese culture is definitely not a culture of cruelty," Zhang said.