China is reportedly in discussions with Pfizer to secure a license for the U.S. drugmaker’s COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid amid a surge in cases in the mainland.
China’s drug and medical devices regulator, the National Medical Products Administration, has been in talks with Pfizer to allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and sell generic versions of Paxlovid since last month with hopes of finalizing a license deal by the end of January, according to Reuters.
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Paxlovid was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% for unvaccinated people with COVID-19 at higher risk for severe disease, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
China first approved Paxlovid last February, but its availability has mostly been limited to hospitals. Last month, Chinese officials came to an agreement with Pfizer to export Paxlovid to a local company to make it more widely available to China’s 1.4 billion residents.
China has been an outlier among developing nations refusing to use most foreign-made vaccines and treatments.
This week, Chinese officials rebuffed offers from the U.S. for its advanced vaccines. The two COVID-19 vaccines China has been administering, CoronaVac and Sinopharm, were developed and manufactured in the country, but research suggests they are less effective than western vaccines.
World health officials have urged Beijing to use foreign-made vaccines and treatments to tame the outbreak in cases that first started in December.
The COVID-19 antiviral would likely benefit China’s elderly population, as Chinese data that have been released suggest vaccination rates are lagging for those 60 and older.
Upon news of the talks, Pfizer’s stock jumped up on Friday.
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China’s COVID-19 outbreak comes as it departs from its “zero COVID” policies that conducted mass testing campaigns and forced millions into lockdowns since the start of the pandemic.
