A Guangzhou pharmaceutical factory claims to have made the country's first batch of generic Tamiflu, the anti-viral drug patented by the Swiss company Roche.
Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical said on Tuesday it had produced several hundred samples of the generic in co-operation with the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, but without Roche's authorisation.
The drug is registered on the mainland under the name Futai, and the producer has applied for state permits for clinical use.
Factory chief Chen Mao said the application could take three to six months to process but the company had no immediate plans for commercial production because Roche had not given the factory permission to do so.
But Mr Chen said that under World Trade Organisation rules his factory could produce the drug in large quantities to be bought by the government if a bird flu pandemic broke out.
He said each dose of Futai would cost less than 10 yuan, a third of the cost of Tamiflu.