Jan 9 (Portal) – Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) is not in talks with Chinese authorities to license a generic version of its COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid for use there, but is in talks on a price for the branded product, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Monday.
Portal reported Friday China is in talks with Pfizer to secure a license that would allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the US firm’s COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China.
Referring to that report, Bourla said at JP Morgan’s health conference in San Francisco, “We are not in talks. We already have an agreement to manufacture Paxlovid locally in China. So we have a local partner who’s going to make Paxlovid for us, and then we’re going to sell it in the Chinese market.”
Pfizer has a licensing agreement with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that allows 35 drugmakers around the world to make cheap versions of Paxlovid and offer the treatment to 95 poorer countries.
That license doesn’t allow them to sell generic Paxlovid in China, where infections have spiked since December, leading to severe flu and COVID drug shortages.
A box of Paxlovid, used for a single treatment, is changing hands for up to 50,000 yuan ($7,313), up from the original price of about 2,000 yuan, according to local media reports and social media posts.
Bourla said the company shipped thousands of treatment cycles to China in 2022, increasing that number to millions in recent weeks.
On Sunday, China’s health security agency (NHSA) said the country would not include Paxlovid in an update to its list of drugs covered by basic health insurance schemes because the US company said the COVID-19 drug had a high price tag.
The drug is currently covered by China’s broad health insurance system under temporary measures until the end of March.
Bourla said talks with China on future pricing for the treatment were stalled after China asked for a lower price than Pfizer charges for most lower-middle-income countries.
“They’re the second highest economy in the world and I don’t think they should pay less than El Salvador,” Bourla said.
The failure of talks to add Pfizer to the list of drugs covered by state health insurance sparked heated debates on Chinese social media on Monday.
Some Chinese media reported that Pfizer had lowered Paxlovid’s price to 600 yuan in negotiations, sparking a wave of criticism and questions on social media as to why Chinese regulators had not accepted that price.
A separate report by financial magazine Caixin on Monday quoted unnamed sources as saying Pfizer has not significantly reduced its price beyond the 1,890 yuan it is currently charging Chinese hospitals.
Pfizer declined to comment on Chinese media reports of the price, which it announced during negotiations. NHSA did not immediately respond to a Portal request for comment on the negotiations.
China’s state media Global Times accused Pfizer of trying to cash in on China’s COVID fight in an opinion piece Monday.
“It’s no secret that US capital forces have already amassed quite a fortune from around the world selling vaccines and drugs, and the US government has been coordinating all along. There is no so-called human right, but a monopoly,” it said.
“If they care about it (the epidemic in China), why doesn’t Pfizer drop the pursuit of profit and cooperate with China with a little more sincerity?”
Bourla said the delisting would have no impact on the company’s business there until April and the company could end up only selling to the private market in China.
Pfizer signed a deal with Chinese drugmaker Zhejiang Huahai (600521.SS) in August to manufacture Paxlovid in mainland China exclusively for patients there.
Bourla said production in China is ramping up and progress has been made that could allow the company to start production in the first half of the year, ahead of its internal year-end estimate.
Reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Sophie Yu in Beijing; Edited by Miyoung Kim, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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