Top Chinese pharmaceutical companies use parts of endangered animals as ingredients: Report

An investigation by an environmental protection group revealed that top Chinese pharmaceutical companies, which are publicly traded, use endangered animal parts in their medicines.

The probe has named three big companies among others: Beijing Tong Ren Tang Group, Tianjin Pharmaceutical Group and Jilin Aodong Pharmaceutical Group. They are also backed by top global banks, such as UBS and HSBC.

The Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA) released a report on Monday (Oct 23) highlighting the list of 72 firms.

The NGO said that these companies are using body parts of threatened leopards and pangolins as ingredients in at least 88 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products.

Avinash Basker, who is a legal and policy specialist for the NGO, said in a media release: "It's particularly disappointing to see so many major banks and financial institutions effectively endorsing this damaging exploitation."

The EIA called on the shareholders to divest their stakes. Basker said, "It's particularly disappointing to see so many major banks and financial institutions effectively endorsing this damaging exploitation, especially as so many have pledged to do otherwise."

"They need to divest from TCM manufacturers using threatened species at the soonest opportunity," Basker added.

The environment protection group said that it focused on pharmaceutical companies because display products included leopard or pangolin parts on their websites.

The group said that it had found at least nine "products stated to contain leopard and/ or pangolin".

Some companies also sell products that contain parts of tigers and rhinos. EIA pointed out that this would contradict "China's own stated position that it does not allow the use of tiger bone and rhino horn in medicine".

"This is used on an effectively industrial scale which can only push these species ever closer to extinction,” Basker further said.

Notably,TCM products are known for using a wide variety of animal parts as ingredients, and manufacturers often publicly tout the efficacy of such ingredients and list them on their product packages.

(With inputs from agencies)

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