Chinese drug makers’ shares plunge as Pfizer’s Paxlovid gains market share

Chinese drug makers’ shares plunge as Pfizer’s Paxlovid gains market share

Shares of Chinese pharmaceutical companies plunged Tuesday morning on Chinese bourses, continuing a slide that began in the face of competition from Pfizer’s COVID-19 drug Paxlovid earlier this month.

Shares of Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical 002603, -8.49%, a traditional-Chinese-medicine producer of COVID-treatment drugs, fell by as much as 9.6%. The company’s share price has fallen 40% from its peak on Dec. 8, when Pfizer’s PFE, +0.37% Covid-19 drug Paxlovid started being widely used in China.

China Meheco Group Co. 600056, -6.21%, the distributor of Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in China fell by as much as 8.9%, after the company told local media Monday that Paxlovid can only be purchased at hospitals. This limits broader sales of the drug by the company through channels such as e-commerce.

China Meheco signed an agreement to supply Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in China in mid-December, as the country has pivoted away from its “zero COVID” policy and allowed a massive outbreak to spread across the country over the past several weeks.

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