Searching for Alternatives to Bear Bile

Research Plan on Bear Bile Medicine Is Hailed by Animal Activists

China’s leading producer of bear bile pharmaceuticals says it is searching for synthetic alternatives, a move hailed by animal welfare advocates.

Bear bile, an ingredient prized in traditional Chinese medicine, is harvested from caged live bears through tubes inserted into their gall bladders, a practice animals welfare activists decry as cruel. About 10,000 bears are kept in bile farms in China.

Shanghai Kaibao Pharmaceutical, which is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, told investors that its research project to develop a bear bile equivalent using poultry bile had received the support of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

In a statement on July 21, Kaibao called its poultry bile technique a “significant” innovation “in the protection and sustainable use of rare animal resources,” and an important move “in the research and practice of the traditional Chinese medicine.”

Kaibao was reported to have bought 18 tons of bear bile powder for its drugs in 2012, more than half the amount produced that year in bile farms across China.

Kaibao said the Chinese central government had promised a grant of more than 5.3 million renminbi, or $860,000, for the project, which started in January. The local authorities have pledged 6 million renminbi, while the company will raise 12 million renminbi, Kaibao said. However, Kaibao cautioned investors in its statement that “the company has not received the central government grant yet. Investors are advised to heed risks in their investment.”

Kaibao did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

While still widely practiced in China, bile farming appears to be increasingly stigmatized. Last year, widespread opposition to the practice derailed a second attempt to go public by the Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Company, which runs its own bear farm.

Guizhentang’s vice chairman, Cai Zituan, had cited the publicly traded Kaibao as a precedent.

The prospect of a Chinese drug company’s reducing its dependence on bile farming was welcomed by Animals Asia, an organization that has campaigned against the practice and that operates a bear sanctuary in southwest China.

“This groundbreaking research will be significant in demonstrating alternative thinking within the traditional Chinese medicine industry and its use of wild animal body parts as medicinal raw materials,” it said in a statement.

The organization’s founder, Jill Robinson, said, “We applaud the official backing of this research and believe it is good news for the bears and the millions of people who have campaigned for their freedom.”

Bears are the only mammal that produces large amounts of ursodeoxycholic acid, the active component in bear bile. Manufacturers outside China have long been able to synthesize, and commercially produce, the chemical using bile from cattle or birds instead.

But such alternatives have until recently met resistance in China. In 2012, Fang Shuting, chairman of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, defended bear bile farming, saying, “There are no substitutes available that have the exact same properties.”

Research on herbal alternatives has identified potential candidates to replace animal-based ingredients. A British study published in 2006 investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of huang qin, a form of scullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis) used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The project did not involve clinical trials, but “if you were going to do the clinical trial, this is the type of chemistry we would be suggesting that you have,” said Monique S. J. Simmonds, director of Kew Innovation Unit, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a co-author of the study.

Ms. Robinson of Animals Asia noted in an email that synthetic bear bile being explored by Kaibao “is also still an animal product — albeit a byproduct of a wider industry,” and as such “it remains an ethical dilemma.”

But “from the point of view of ending bear bile farming, and drastically reducing suffering of animals caged and mutilated for anything up to 30 years of their lives,” she wrote, “this is a huge step.”

Source of the story is here.