Pfizer’s COVID-19 medicine Paxlovid received conditional clearance from China’s medical goods authority on Saturday, making it the first oral pill expressly formulated to treat the disease to be cleared in the country.
The National Medical Products Administration has approved Paxlovid for the treatment of adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of developing a severe condition.
More research on the drug should be conducted and reported to the authorities, according to the paper. It’s unclear whether China has already begun negotiations with Pfizer to obtain the tablet. Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment from as per sources. As a result of the approval, Pfizer expects $22 billion in revenues from the medicine in 2022.
Pfizer officials have stated that the business is in active conversations concerning Paxlovid with over 100 nations, and that the company has the capacity to produce 120 million courses if necessary. While a number of vaccinations, including one developed by Pfizer, are available worldwide to help prevent infection and serious disease, persons infected with COVID-19 have few therapeutic choices.
It stated that more research on the medicine should be undertaken and reported to the authorities. It’s unclear whether China has already begun negotiations with Pfizer to obtain the tablet. As reported by sources, Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.As a result of the approval, Pfizer expects $22 billion in revenues from the medicine in 2022.
Pfizer officials have stated that the business is in active conversations concerning Paxlovid with over 100 nations, and that the company has the capacity to produce 120 million courses if necessary. While a number of vaccinations, including one developed by Pfizer, are available worldwide to help prevent infection and serious disease, persons infected with COVID-19 have few therapeutic choices .
In December, Pfizer announced that final study findings revealed that its therapy reduced the probability of hospitalisation or death in COVID-19 patients at risk of severe illness by 89 percent when given within three days of beginning of symptoms, and by 88 percent when given within five days of commencement.
Each course of Paxlovid costs roughly $530 in the United States, while each course of Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 tablet molnupiravir costs $700.
In the past year, China has kept the daily number of new COVID-19 patients with confirmed symptoms below 250, and occasionally under 10.
Due to China’s practise of promptly managing any local flare-ups as soon as possible and its weeks-long quarantine requirement for most travellers arriving from abroad, the number is minimal for its 1.4 billion people and by worldwide standards.
China has yet to authorise any COVID-19 vaccines produced by multinational pharmaceutical companies, but by February, China will have done so. 7, it had immunised 87.1 percent of the country’s population with multiple domestically developed vaccines.