(Yicai Global) Jan. 11 -- Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral treatment Molnupiravir has been priced at CNY1,500 (USD221) per 40-capsule bottle on its first launch in China, and is expected to go on sale as early as the middle of this month.

The import price of Molnupiravir is be between CNY1,100 and CNY1,200 before tax, the drug procurement center of the northern city of Tianjin said yesterday. That is lower than the USD712 it is priced at in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Molnupiravir is also cheaper than China’s only other imported small-molecule Covid oral drug Paxlovid, which has a provisional price of CNY1,890 a box through medical insurance in some parts of the country.

The drug is expected to be available in China as soon as mid-January, before the seven-day Chinese New Year holiday starts on Jan. 21, Cai Maisong, vice president of Beijing-based Sinopharm, the drug’s exclusive importer and distributor in the Chinese mainland, told The Paper yesterday.

The first batch of several hundred thousand boxes arrived in Shanghai earlier this month, and more will come, Cai said, adding that Sinopharm is ready with logistics and has enough workers to quickly distribute the drug across China. Regulators gave conditional approval for imports of Molnupiravir on Dec. 29.

Molnupiravir and Paxlovid can be used to treat adult Covid-19 patients at high risk of a severe inflection because of advanced age, being overweight or obese, or having chronic kidney disease, diabetes, or severe cardiovascular disease.

Molnupiravir is 30 percent to 50 percent effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization for patients with severe Covid-19 infections and lowers the risk of death by 89 percent to 100 percent, according to Merck. Paxlovid, when taken within three to five days of symptoms onset, reduces Covid-19-related hospitalization and death chances by 89 percent and 88 percent, respectively.

Editor: Martin Kadiev