Beijing in talks to manufacture Pfizer Covid treatment

CHINA is in talks with Pfizer to manufacture a generic version of its Covid antiviral drug Paxlovid as infections rip through the population.

China’s medical products regulator, the National Medical Products Administration, has been leading the talks with Pfizer since late last month.

Chinese hospitals have been under intense pressure after its government abandoned its zero-covid policy last month. An estimated 250m people in the country caught the virus in the 20 days after the policy was scrapped, according to leaked official documents.

Pfizer last month reached an agreement to export Paxlovid to China through a local company to make the medicine more widely available.

However, severe shortages of antiviral treatments have forced many Chinese to turn to underground channels to secure Paxlovid and other drugs, according to domestic media.

Scalpers have been charging as much as 50,000 yuan (£6,000) for a box of Paxlovid, more than 20 times its original price of 2,300 yuan.