Fujian Greetown Medicine Industry, a controversial company known for its extraction of bear bile for use in medicinal products, is launching a new round of fundraising on China's over-the-counter equity exchange after its previous attempt to go public was thwarted by animal rights activists in 2013.

Greetown Medicine applied to be listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) on Monday. According to application documents available on the NEEQ website, Greetown plans to sell 55.53 percent of its equity shares in the first round.

Compared with the approval process for China's main stock exchanges, which could take years, applying for listing on the NEEQ - also known as the "new third board" - is considered relatively easy and has become popular for small- and medium-sized companies.

Greetown Medicine applied to be listed on China's A-share market in 2009, but its attempted IPO failed in 2013 after animal rights groups and celebrities including novelist Bi Shumin and former TV anchor Cui Yongyuan filed petitions with the China Securities Regulatory Commission in protest.

Activists called Greetown's practice of repeatedly extracting bile from bears locked up in cages "cruel and inhumane."

Despite the protest, the company has not changed its practices. The company's bear bile powder, its main product, reportedly brought in 148 million yuan ($22.77 million) in revenue in 2013 and 157 million yuan in 2014. Greetown's net profit was registered at 59.11 million yuan in 2013 and 57.71 million yuan in 2014.

Zhang Xiaohai, executive secretary-general of Ta Foundation, a Chinese animal protection NGO, told the Global Times on Tuesday that his foundation will send a letter to the NEEQ, urging it to reject Greetown's application.

Animals Asia Foundation, another NGO, also said on its WeChat account that it found the news "shocking and perplexing."

"Extracting bile from bears that are still alive is inhumane, and there is no way to make the process less cruel in the future," Zhang said, adding that allowing Greetown to be listed on the NEEQ would send the wrong message to the public.

Despite a drop in the number of bear farms throughout China, Zhang said the number of bears raised in captivity may have grown from 10,000 in 2012 to over 20,000 this year.

As of August this year, Greetown has raised 899 bears. The company estimates that it breeds more than 100 bears per year, according to its documents.

"We believe extracted bear bile will gradually be replaced by artificially synthesized (bile). The new technology will completely change the industry," Zhang noted.

Shanghai Kaibao Pharmaceutical Co, China's largest buyer of bear bile powder, claimed in August that it had made a major breakthrough in the artificial synthesis of bear bile.