Pfizer Nixes Generic COVID Drug Paxlovid For China

Pfizer Inc. is not in talks with Chinese authorities to license a generic version of its COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid for use there, but is in discussions about a price for the branded product, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said, Michael Erman, Brenda Goh and Sophie Yu reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Pfizer's licensing agreement with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) does not allow them to sell generic Paxlovid in China.

Reuters reported on Friday that China was in talks with Pfizer to secure a license that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the US firm's COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China.

Bourla said "we are not in discussions. We have an agreement already for local manufacturing of Paxlovid in China. So we have a local partner that will make Paxlovid for us, and then we will sell it to the Chinese market."

Pfizer has a licensing agreement with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that allows 35 drugmakers around the world to make cheap versions of Paxlovid and supply the treatment in 95 poorer countries.

That license does not allow them to sell generic Paxlovid in China, where infections have surged since December, prompting a severe shortage of flu and COVID drugs.

A box of Paxlovid, used for a single course of treatment, is changing hands for as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,313), according to local media reports and social media posts, against the original price of around 2,000 yuan.

China wants the price to be lower than what Pfizer charges for poor countries.

Bourla said the company had shipped thousands of courses of the treatment in 2022 to China and in the past couple of weeks, had increased that to millions.

On Sunday, China's Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said that the country would not include Paxlovid in an update to its list of medicines covered by basic medical insurance schemes as the US firm quoted a high price for the COVID-19 drug.

The drug is covered by China's broad healthcare insurance scheme under temporary measures until the end of March. Bourla said that talks with China on future pricing for the treatment had broken off after China had asked for a lower price than Pfizer is charging for most lower-middle-income countries.

"They are the second highest economy in the world and I don't think that they should pay less than El Salvador," Bourla said.

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