Chinese state-owned firm signs deal with Pfizer to supply Covid-19 pill

Name: US authorises Pfizer oral Covid-19 pill Paxlovid for home treatment
Uploaded: 2022-03-10T06:21:44.000Z
Duration: 2 min 25 s
Description: US authorises Pfizer oral Covid-19 pill Paxlovid for home treatment

Regulator conditionally approved Paxlovid last month to treat adults with mild to moderate Covid-19 who are at high risk of becoming severely ill

Contract allows China Meheco Corp to commercialise the drug during the 2022 agreement period

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Paxlovid is the first foreign Covid-19 drug to enter China’s market. Photo: Pfizer via Reuters

Zhuang Pinghui

Published: 2:21pm, 10 Mar 2022Updated: 3:12pm, 10 Mar 2022

Pfizer’s Covid-19 pill is one step closer to clinical use in China, with state-owned China Meheco Corp securing a deal with Pfizer to commercialise the drug within the year.

The Chinese company had signed a contract with Pfizer and was authorised to supply Paxlovid in China during the 2022 agreement period, China Meheco said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Last month, China’s drug regulator conditionally approved Paxlovid to treat adults with mild to moderate Covid-19 who had a high risk of becoming severely ill, including the elderly and patients with chronic kidney issues, cardiovascular or chronic lung disease, diabetes and other high-risk factors for Covid-19.

02:25

US authorises Pfizer oral Covid-19 pill Paxlovid for home treatment

Paxlovid is the first foreign Covid-19 drug to enter China’s market.

In December, China approved a cocktail of neutralising antibodies jointly developed by Brii Biosciences and Tsinghua University after clinical trials showed an 80 per cent reduction in hospital admissions and deaths in Covid-19 patients at high risk of developing severe disease. The treatment requires intravenous infusion and lab tests found the treatment “holds up well” against the Omicron variant, although one of the antibodies had a substantial drop in activity, according to the Chinese developer.

Li Yadong, chairman of China Meheco, said in a statement the partnership with Pfizer would allow both parties to “leverage their respective advantage in resources” to help launch oral therapeutics in China.

“We also hope to take this cooperation as an opportunity to explore multidisciplinary and multi-angle cooperation with excellent global pharmaceutical companies,” Li said.

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