(Yicai Global) Nov. 24 -- Shares of Frontier Biotechnologies jumped after the company said China’s National Medical Products Administration has approved the phase II and III clinical trial protocols for its Covid-19 inhaled therapy.

Frontier Biotech [SHA: 688221] ended up 5.6 percent at CNY19 (USD2.66) today, after surging by more than 13 percent at the opening to hit an eight-month high. The stock has climbed nearly 60 percent in less than a month and a half.

The company’s Covid-19 therapy FB2001 (generic name Bofutrelvir) is intended to treat mild and common Covid-19, the innovative drug developer said in an statement late yesterday.

Frontier Biotech launched a global clinical trial of the therapy by means of injection in both China and the United States last year, which is still ongoing.

Animal testing conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences using two delivery methods, inhalation and nasal drops, showed that FB2001 could significantly reduce the viral load of the omicron strain of the coronavirus in the lungs of mice, Frontier Biotech said.

The Nanjing-based company did not disclose further details of the clinical trial plan and estimated timeline.

The drug is developed by Frontier Biotech, Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the CAS’s Shanghai Institute of Material Medical. Frontier Biotech has global clinical development, production, manufacturing and commercialization rights for it. The firm said that the drug can be classified as a 3C-like protease inhibitor medicine.

A similar drug Paxlovid developed by Pfizer received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last December and was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration this February, also for domestic emergency use. Unlike FB2001, Paxlovid is administered orally.

Editor: Peter Thomas