BEIJING (awp/afp) – China gave the green light on Saturday to the “conditional” use of the American group Pfizer’s anti-Covid pill, a treatment marketed under the name Paxlovid, the national health agency said. medications.
This decision comes at a time when Beijing is organizing the Winter Olympics and when the country is faced with a few small sporadic outbreaks. However, the Chinese authorities have not authorized any foreign vaccine against Covid-19 so far.
Paxlovid was authorized at the end of December in the United States and in around forty countries since. Pfizer has already sold $72 million in 2021 and hopes to produce 120 million doses over the whole of 2022.
China’s National Medical Products Administration “approved” the drug “conditionally” and, like other countries, only for patients at risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19, it said on its website. Internet.
Pfizer will also have to continue studies on its drug and submit the results, it said in its press release.
China has been pursuing a zero Covid strategy since the start of the epidemic, which consists of doing everything to limit the occurrence of new cases, generally only a few dozen per day.
For example, it reported on Saturday only 40 new local patients throughout the country.
If these figures are derisory compared to those recorded daily in other parts of the world, they push the authorities to redouble their vigilance at a time when the city of Beijing is organizing the Winter Olympics until February 20.
All foreign participants are confined to a sanitary bubble sealed off from the rest of the Chinese capital.
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