China has given conditional approval to the importation and use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid. The Chinese drug regulator noted, however, that further research into the medicine is needed for it to be granted general approval.
China’s National Medical Products Administration announced on Saturday that it had “conducted an emergency authorisation review” of Paxlovid and subsequently “an approval with conditions was granted for the import registration of Pfizer’s Covid-19 treatment.”
The drug will reportedly be used in China to treat those with a “high risk of progression to severe disease,” according to the South China Morning Post.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency use authorization to Paxlovid back in December, and the drug has also since been approved for use in the UK, Israel, Canada, Australia, and the European Union.
Pfizer expects to earn $22 billion in revenue from Paxlovid alone in 2022, with the company predicting as much as $102 billion in total revenue this year.