Paxlovid: China gives green light to Pfizer COVID-19 pill

Beijing: China’s National Medical Products Administration announced Saturday that it has given conditional approval to the import and use of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral pill. 

The pill will be prescribed to those who are at highest risk of serious illness. 

China’s drug regulator, however, noted that further research into the medicine is needed for it to be granted general approval.

It is not immediately clear if China is already in talks with Pfizer to procure the pill.

According to the South China Morning Post, the drug is believed to be used to treat people with a “high risk of progression to serious disease”.

Paxlovid was granted emergency authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December. The drug has also been approved for use in the UK, Israel, Canada, Australia and in the European Union.

Moreover, China has yet to approve any COVID-19 vaccines developed by foreign drug makers but has vaccinated 87.1% of its entire population by February 7 using several domestically developed shots. 

On the other hand, Pfizer anticipates that Paxlovid will generate $22 billion of revenue in 2022 alone, and the company could earn as high as $102 trillion in total revenue in this same year. 

"This is an important milestone in our fight against COVID-19," a Pfizer representative said in a statement, without providing information about procurement.

As per Pfizer executives, the company is in active discussions with over 100 countries about anti-COVID pill, and has the capacity to provide 120 million courses if needed.