(Yicai Global) Dec. 30 -- Sino Biopharmaceutical has become the second Chinese drugmaker to secure the rights to market Ensitrelvir, a Japanese Covid-19 oral antiviral treatment, in the Chinese mainland.

Sino Biopharm's unit Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group inked a deal with Ping An-Shionogi, a joint venture of China’s Ping An Insurance Group and Ensitrelvir's maker Shionogi, to market the drug, the Hong Kong-based firm announced late yesterday.

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding, another of China’s biggest drugmakers, announced on Dec. 23 that it had penned a deal with Ping An-Shionogi to import and distribute Ensitrelvir in the Chinese mainland.

Ensitrelvir, which curbs the protease needed for the novel coronavirus to replicate, similar to Pfizer's Paxlovid, gained production and sales licenses in Japan last month. Its Osaka-based maker has applied to Chinese regulators for the drug's emergency-use authorization in the country.

Shares of Sino Biopharm [HKG: 1177] closed down 0.7 percent at HKD4.57 (59 US cents) each today, after jumping by as much as 7.2 percent in the morning trading session. The stock has fallen 16.3 percent this year.

An affiliate of Thailand's Chia Tai Group, also known as Charoen Pokphand Group, Sino Biopharm mainly researches, develops, and sells drugs in China.

Its first-half net profit tumbled 77 percent to CNY1.9 billion (USD273 million) from a year earlier, while revenue rose 5.9 percent to CNY15.2 billion (USD2.2 billion), the firm’s semi-annual financial report showed.

Editor: Martin Kadiev