Why companies need urine ...
By Xu Chi |
July 12, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PLASTIC buckets placed at toilets in some elementary schools in a east China city are being used by pharmaceutical companies to collect urine to make medicine, the national TV said.
It was previously reported in the Chinese media that residents in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Proivnce, were surprised to see the red plastic buckets at boys' toilets at schools and shocked to see workers taking the buckets, full of urine, to trucks every afternoon.
They posed the question: "Why are people bothering to collect and transport boys' urine?"
In response, some schools told China Central Television that a pharmaceutical company was collecting the urine to extract urokinase, a product that dissolves blood clots and which is widely used in the treatment of thrombotic diseases.
The schools said they weren't being paid to provide the urine.
Behind the unusual story, a serious problem is emerging in that pharmaceutical companies are finding it more and more difficult to collect urine due to improved hygiene in China's public toilets.
Pharmaceutical companies used to collect urine by placing buckets at public toilets, CCTV said. Large amounts were needed as only dozens of grams of the product could be abstracted from one ton of human urine.
But with the improvement in hygiene, the companies are no longer allowed to place buckets at toilets in major cities and they have to head to small villages or seek other ways of collecting urine.
A manager surnamed Yu with a company that was collecting pupils' urine told CCTV that some schools rejected their requests by saying that the buckets would be too smelly.
To make matters worse, Chinese pharmaceutical companies producing urokinase are facing strong competition from foreign companies who see China as the ideal place to collect urine given its huge population, CCTV reported.
With less human urine to abstract urokinase, the product is often in short supply, putting the lives of patients with thrombotic diseases at risk, the program reported.
A lack of the raw material is adding costs to the production of the medicine and forcing some companies to quit the industry, said an engineer surnamed Lin with a Tianjin-based company.
A 172 percent rise in the cost of the raw material was seen from 2009 to 2011, and the price of the medicine had gone up 91 percent, Lin told the program.
Medical experts are calling on residents to support urine collection at public toilets to ensure supplies, the program said.
It was previously reported in the Chinese media that residents in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Proivnce, were surprised to see the red plastic buckets at boys' toilets at schools and shocked to see workers taking the buckets, full of urine, to trucks every afternoon.
They posed the question: "Why are people bothering to collect and transport boys' urine?"
In response, some schools told China Central Television that a pharmaceutical company was collecting the urine to extract urokinase, a product that dissolves blood clots and which is widely used in the treatment of thrombotic diseases.
The schools said they weren't being paid to provide the urine.
Behind the unusual story, a serious problem is emerging in that pharmaceutical companies are finding it more and more difficult to collect urine due to improved hygiene in China's public toilets.
Pharmaceutical companies used to collect urine by placing buckets at public toilets, CCTV said. Large amounts were needed as only dozens of grams of the product could be abstracted from one ton of human urine.
But with the improvement in hygiene, the companies are no longer allowed to place buckets at toilets in major cities and they have to head to small villages or seek other ways of collecting urine.
A manager surnamed Yu with a company that was collecting pupils' urine told CCTV that some schools rejected their requests by saying that the buckets would be too smelly.
To make matters worse, Chinese pharmaceutical companies producing urokinase are facing strong competition from foreign companies who see China as the ideal place to collect urine given its huge population, CCTV reported.
With less human urine to abstract urokinase, the product is often in short supply, putting the lives of patients with thrombotic diseases at risk, the program reported.
A lack of the raw material is adding costs to the production of the medicine and forcing some companies to quit the industry, said an engineer surnamed Lin with a Tianjin-based company.
A 172 percent rise in the cost of the raw material was seen from 2009 to 2011, and the price of the medicine had gone up 91 percent, Lin told the program.
Medical experts are calling on residents to support urine collection at public toilets to ensure supplies, the program said.
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