(Yicai Global) Dec. 19 -- China National Pharmaceutical Group, also known as Sinopharm, has said it is not a distributor for US pharma giant Pfizer’s Covid-19 oral antiviral drug on the Chinese mainland.

People might be getting mixed up with another drugmaker called China Meheco Group due to the similarity of the names, Sinopharm said at the weekend.

Meheco will be responsible for the import and distribution of Paxlovid on the mainland from December 2022 to November 2023, the Beijing-based Chinese drug seller said on Dec. 14.

Meheco is owned by state-owned conglomerate China General Technology (Group) Holding. While Sinopharm is a large healthcare group directly under the country’s cabinet. It has more than 1,600 subsidiaries, eight listed companies and 210,000 employees.

Meheco’s share price [SHA:600056] closed up 10 percent today at CNY22.33 (USD3.20). The stock has gained by the daily limit for three consecutive trading days since the news broke.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor