(Yicai Global) Jan. 9 -- China has decided not to include Pfizer’s oral Covid-19 drug Paxlovid in a catalog of drugs covered by the country’s medical insurance system because of its high price.

Three Covid treatments -- Paxlovid, Genuine Biotech’s Azvudine, and a proprietary Chinese medicine of Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical -- were included in four days of talks with the National Healthcare Security Administration, the regulator said yesterday. Only the two China-made drugs made the list.

Paxlovid was approved for marketing in China last February and priced at CNY2,300 (USD336) a box. On Jan. 7, the NHSA and other authorities included it, as well as all other drugs recommended in the latest version of the coronavirus diagnosis and treatment plan, in the temporary medical insurance program, which expires at the end of March, at a price of CNY1,890.

The exclusion of Paxlovid from the medical insurance drugs’ catalog will enable Chinese Covid-19 medicines under development to take a large market share, a drugmaker told Yicai Global.

After China eased Covid control measures last month, the number of infections jumped, but the supply of medicines was not enough to meet surging demand.

Some cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, included Paxlovid in their medical insurance plans, covering as much as 90 percent of the drug’s price. But the supply of Paxlovid is still tight, with strict medication standards, Yicai Global learned from a community hospital in Shanghai.

A number of Chinese pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs with the same 3C-like protease inhibitors as Paxlovid, such as Simcere Pharmaceutical Group’s SIM0417, which is expected to be launched as soon as next month.

On Dec. 30, China also conditionally approved the import of Molnupiravir, an investigational new drug and an oral ribonucleoside analog that inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, developed by US pharma giant Merck. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione