Talks to negotiate a lower price for Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid in China did not pan out, the Chinese National Healthcare Security Administration on Sunday said, creating a quandary for the Chinese government amid a rampant outbreak in the world’s most populous nation.
Pfizer and the government agency that oversees the state medical insurance program failed to agree on a further cut on the price of Paxlovid, which initially sold for 2,300 yuan (US$340) and was recently lowered to about 1,900 yuan for a course of treatment, Chinese news reports said.
The pill is covered by state medical insurance under a provisional measure, which would continue until the end of March, the agency said in a statement.
Photo: REUTERS
The government remains in talks with Pfizer for a licensing deal to allow domestic companies to manufacture generic versions of Paxlovid, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Although five Chinese companies make inexpensive, generic versions of Paxlovid for low-income countries under an agreement with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool, they cannot sell the output in China.
Pfizer’s unwillingness to further reduce Paxlovid’s price underscores the challenge Beijing faces in getting US and European drugmakers to help ease its strain in dealing with a COVID-19 wave that has overwhelmed hospitals and caused medicine shortages.
Pfizer would continue to collaborate with the government and other stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China, even though negotiations for state insurance coverage did not work out, the New York-based drugmaker said in a statement yesterday.
Given China’s under-developed private medical insurance market and the reliance of its 1.4 billion people on the state-run program, Beijing has been dangling inclusion on government’s reimbursement list to push drugmakers to offer deep cost cuts.
Every year it negotiates to set prices for newly approved and life-saving medicines that are part of the 2.87 trillion yuan state program, which covers more than 95 percent of the population.
Companies ranging from AstraZeneca PLC and GSK PLC to Gilead Sciences Inc and Pfizer have participated, as the expanded sales volume stemming from the insurance coverage can more than offset the reduced revenue from price cuts.
The approach means some drugs in China cost a faction of their price in developed countries.
While China has relied exclusively on domestically produced vaccines for most of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing has demonstrated a greater appetite for antiviral therapies developed abroad following the country’s abrupt termination of its “zero COVID-19” approach last month.
After Paxlovid was approved early last year, state-owned China Meheco Co (中國醫藥) struck a deal to import and distribute more of it to meet surging demand.
Pfizer has also reached deals with two Chinese manufacturers to produce the drug’s ingredients locally. China’s drug regulator approved Merck & Co’s antiviral Lagevrio late last month.
The state-run health insurance program extended coverage to the home-grown COVID-19 antiviral azvudine and traditional Chinese herbal medicine granules, but neither demonstrated the same ability to prevent severe disease and death in clinical trials as Paxlovid.
Supply of the Pfizer drug in China has fallen significantly short of the demand for it, a situation exacerbated by the comparatively low rates of vaccination among elderly people, who are at greater risk of severe disease or death.
Many people have turned to the black market, buying the drug from other countries or bringing in generic versions made in India.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS