FUZHOU - A pharmaceutical company that makes medicines from bear bile has once again drawn fire from animal rights activists as it attempts to go public for a second time.

The company, Guizhentang Pharmaceuticals, founded in 2000, extracts bile from captive bears for traditional medicines. The company farms 470 bears and hopes to increase the number to 1,200, according to its website.

Bai Yipeng, founder of the China SOS Help, a non-governmental organization that advocates for animal rights, said on Wednesday that he and others had bought shares of the drug company in order to oppose its going public.

The offer for Guizhentang's shares could be as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million) - more than twice the amount when Bai tried to stop the company's initial public offering (IPO) last year, according to a report in China Security Journal.

The drug maker is among other 220 companies waiting to be listed on the Growth Enterprise Board in Shenzhen, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.