(Yicai Global) March 16 -- Shares of companies linked to two Covid-19 antiviral therapies that China’s National Health Commission yesterday added to its diagnosis and treatment guidelines surged in value today.

The guidelines now include Pfizer’s Covid-19 pill Paxlovid as well as the monoclonal neutralizing antibody combination therapy jointly developed by Brii Biosciences, the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, and Tsinghua University.

Brii Biosciences [HKG: 2137] ended 21 percent higher at HKD10.14 (USD1.30), while Ascletis Pharma [HKG: 1672], a maker of ritonavir, a component of Paxlovid, closed 22.6 percent up at HKD4.28.

Both therapies are used in the early stages of Covid-19 to stop patients developing worse symptoms, the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen’s Prof. Lu Hongzhou told Yicai Global, adding that they lower virus replication and transmission as well as quarantine and hospital stay times.

Amid a resurgence of Covid-19 in China, the mainland reported 1,860 new locally transmitted cases yesterday, of which 1,456 were in Jilin province in the northeast of the country, the National Health Commission said at a press conference.

China Meheco Group penned a deal with Pfizer on March 9 to market Paxlovid in the mainland. Meheco’s shares [SHA: 600056] jumped by the exchange-imposed limit of 10 percent today to finish at CNY27.49 (USD4.33) each.

Paxlovid’s approval in China has also driven up the stock of companies in the supply chain such as Asymchem, Porton Pharma Solutions, and Abachem.

But despite their inclusion, Chinese hospitals are still waiting for the two drugs, which Yicai Global learned, are in short supply.

Prof. Yan Xuebing, director of the Department of Infectious Disease at the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, said that they have not received the drugs and expects that it may take a while.

Government agencies have not disclosed the price of Paxlovid in China. Pfizer charges USD530 per course in the United States and is in talks with more than 100 countries about supplying it.

Editor: Peter Thomas