China: Approves ‘conditional’ use of Pfizer coronavirus pill

China today gave the green light for the “conditional” use of the drug against COVID-19 of the American pharmaceutical group Pfizer, which is marketed under the brand name Paxlovid, the country’s National Drug Administration announced.

This decision is made as Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics and at a time when the country is facing some small sporadic outbreaks of the virus. However, the Chinese authorities have not approved any foreign vaccine against COVID-19 so far.

Paxlovid was licensed in late December in the United States and in about 40 countries since then. Pfizer has sold $ 72 million worth of the drug in 2021 and hopes to produce 120 million doses by 2022.

The Chinese National Medicines Authority “approved” the use of this drug “under certain conditions” and, as in other countries, only for patients at risk of developing a severe form of COVID-19, it said on its website.

Pfizer will continue to study its drug and submit the results to the Chinese regulator, it said in a statement.

China has been pursuing a zero-tolerance strategy on COVID-19 since the outbreak of the epidemic, which is to make every effort to limit the incidence of new cases, which generally amount to just a few dozen a day.

For example, the country’s Ministry of Health today announced only 40 new domestic infections across the country.

Although these numbers are very low compared to those recorded daily in other countries of the world, they push the authorities to double the vigilance again when Beijing is hosting the Winter Olympics until February 20.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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