Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Pfizer CEO rules out generic COVID drug Paxlovid for
China
Tue, January 10, 2023 at 8:12 a.m. GMT+8
(Reuters) -Pfizer Inc is not in
talks with Chinese authorities to license a generic version of its COVID-19
treatment Paxlovid for use there, but is in discussions about a price for the
branded product, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Monday.
Reuters reported on Friday that China was in talks with Pfizer to secure a licence that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the U.S. firm's COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China.
Referring to that report, Bourla, speaking at J.P. Morgan's healthcare conference in San Francisco, said "We are not in discussions. We have an agreement already for local manufacturing of Paxlovid in China. So we have a local partner that will make Paxlovid for us, and then we will sell it to the Chinese market."
Pfizer has a licensing agreement with the U.N-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that allows 35 drugmakers around the world to make cheap versions of Paxlovid and supply the treatment in 95 poorer countries.
That licence does not allow them to sell generic Paxlovid in China, where infections have surged since December, prompting a severe shortage of flu and COVID drugs.
A box of Paxlovid, used for a single course of treatment, is changing hands for as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,313), according to local media reports and social media posts, against the original price of around 2,000 yuan.
On Sunday, China's Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said that the country would not include Paxlovid in an update to its list of medicines covered by basic medical insurance schemes as the U.S. firm quoted a high price for the COVID-19 drug.
The drug is currently covered by China's broad healthcare insurance scheme under temporary measures until the end of March.
Bourla said that talks with China on future pricing for the treatment had broken off after China had asked for a lower price than Pfizer is charging for most lower middle income countries.
"They are the second highest economy in the world and I don't think that they should pay less than El Salvador," Bourla said.
The failure of the talks to include Pfizer in the list of medicines covered by basic state health insurance generated heated discussions on Chinese social media on Monday.
Some Chinese media reported that Pfizer had lowered the price of Paxlovid to 600 yuan in the negotiations, triggering 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 cited unnamed sources as saying that Pfizer had not lowered its price significantly beyond the 1,890 yuan it currently charges Chinese hospitals.
Pfizer declined to comment on the Chinese media reports about the price it quoted during the negotiations. NHSA did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the negotiations.
"It is not a secret that U.S. capital forces have already accumulated quite a fortune from the world via selling vaccines and drugs, and the U.S. government has been coordinating all along. There is no so-called human right, but monopoly," it said.
"If they do care about it (the epidemic in China), why don't Pfizer drop some pursuit of the profit, and cooperate with China with a little more sincerity?"
Bourla said the removal from the list would not have an effect on the company's business there until April and the company could end up selling only to the private market in China.
Pfizer signed a deal in August for Chinese drugmaker Zhejiang Huahai to produce Paxlovid in mainland China solely for patients there.
Bourla said production is gearing up in China and progress has been made that may allow it to start manufacturing in the first half of the year, ahead of its year-end internal estimate.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Miyoung Kim, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Translation
（路透社）- 輝瑞公司首席執行官Albert Bourla 週一表示，輝瑞公司並未與中國當局就許可其冠狀病毒治療藥物 Paxlovid 的通用版在中國使用進行談判，但正在討論該正品牌產品的價格。
路透社週五報導稱，中國正在與輝瑞公司談判以獲得許可，該許可將允許國內製藥商在中國生產和分銷美國公司冠狀病毒抗病毒藥物 Paxlovid 的通用版製藥。
Bourla 在舊金山舉行的摩根大通醫療保健會議上談到該報告時說： “我們沒有進行討論。我們已經就在中國當地生產 Paxlovid 達成了協議。因此我們有一個本地合作夥伴將為我們生產 Paxlovid ，然後我們會把它在中國市場出售。”
輝瑞與聯合國支持的藥品專利池 (Medicines Patent Pool) (MPP) 簽訂了許可協議，允許全球 35 家製藥商生產廉價版 Paxlovid 並在 95 個較貧窮的國家提供治療。
該許可證不允許他們在中國銷售通用版製 Paxlovid，當地自去年 12 月以來感染激增，導致流感和 COVID 藥物嚴重短缺。
根據當地媒體報導和社交媒體帖子，一盒用於單個療程的 Paxlovid 以高達 50,000 元人民幣（7,313 美元）的價格易手，而原價約為 2,000 元人民幣。
Bourla 表示，該公司已在 2022 年向中國運送了數千個療程的療程，並在過去幾週內將數量增加到數百萬個。
週日，中國醫療保障局 (NHSA) 表示，由於美國公司對冠狀病毒 藥物的報價很高，該國不會將 Paxlovid 納入其基本醫療保險計劃涵蓋的更新藥物清單。
根據臨時措施，該藥物目前留在中國廣泛的醫療保險計劃中，直到 3 月底。
Bourla 說，在中國要求的價格低于輝瑞對大多數中低收入國家的收費後，與中國就這種治療的未來定價進行的談判已經中斷。
Bourla說: “他們是世界第二大經濟體，我認為他們支付的費用不應低於薩爾瓦多” 。
談判未能將輝瑞納入國家基本醫療保險涵蓋的藥品清單一事，週一在中國社交媒體上引發了熱烈討論。
有中國媒體報導稱，輝瑞在談判中將Paxlovid的價格下調至600中國元，在社交媒體上引發了一波批評和質疑中國監管機構為何不接受該價格。
財經雜誌《財新》週一的另一篇報導援引未具名消息人士的話稱，輝瑞並未大幅降低其目前向中國醫院收取的 1,890 元的價格。
輝瑞公司拒絕就中國媒體關於其在談判中所報價格的報導發表評論。 NHSA 沒有立即答覆路透社就談判發表評論的請求。
中國官方媒體《環球時報》週一在一篇評論文章中指責輝瑞公司試圖從中國的冠狀病毒 戰中獲利。
它說: “這不是秘密，美國資本力量通過向世界出售疫苗和藥物已經積累了相當多的財富，而且美國政府一直在協調。沒有所謂的人權，只有壟斷”。
“如果他們真的關心（中國的疫情），輝瑞為什麼不放棄一些對利潤的追求，多一點誠意與中國合作呢？”
Bourla 表示，從名單中移除不會對公司在 4 月份之前的業務產生影響，而且公司最終可能只向中國的私人市場銷售產品。
8 月，輝瑞與中國製藥商浙江華海簽署協議，在中國大陸專門為當地病人生產 Paxlovid。
Bourla 表示，中國的生產正在加快步伐，並且取得的進展可能使其能夠在今年上半年開始生產，超過其年底的內部估計。
So, Pfizer Inc is not in talks with
Chinese authorities to license a generic version of its COVID-19 treatment
Paxlovid for use there, but is in discussions about a price for the branded
product. I am interested in knowing that China’s state media Global
Times has accused Pfizer of trying to profit from China's COVID in saying that
U.S. capital forces had already accumulated quite a fortune from the world via
selling vaccines and drugs, and asked why didn't Pfizer drop some pursuit of the
profit. To me, it becomes clear that many educated people still do not
understand how the capitalistic world is operating in general and in particular
in the
US. If the Chinese are so confident about their communist system, they should
have the talent and resource to do their medical research and manufacture their
own drugs.
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