Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) has said it is talking to China about a potential price cut to provide its branded antiviral Covid pill, which it has been increasing shipments of into the millions in the past two weeks.
The giant drugmaker said it was not discussing the provision of a cheaper generic version of the drug for the People’s Republic, following reports indicating this at the end of last week.
“We have an agreement already for local manufacturing of Paxlovid in China,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said at a US conference, Reuters reported, adding: “So we have a local partner that will make Paxlovid for us, and then we will sell it to the Chinese market."
A generic version of Paxlovid is being made for economically developing countries, while a full course of the treatment costs US$530.
As China loosens its restrictive ‘Zero Covid’ measures and announced a new list of medicines covered by national medical insurance schemes, it said over the weekend that it will not include the Pfizer pill in its new list due to the high price.
Inclusion on the list in previous years has required some pharmaceutical companies to slash prices by over half, Reuters noted.