China has rejected extending insurance coverage for Pfizer’s Paxlovid despite the US company's plans to continue supplying the oral COVID-19 antiviral, including through local manufacturing, amid strong demand and increasing severe infections in the country.

A year since Paxlovid was launched and The Medicines Patent Pool licensed Pfizer’s nirmatrelvir, we look at a few likely reasons for authorized generics of Paxlovid not turning up and what lies ahead in 2023, as Hetero’s version becomes the first with WHO prequalification while two Chinese and a Korean company wait in the wings.

It’s been a year since Paxlovid was launched and The Medicines Patent Pool licensed Pfizer’s nirmatrelvir. Scrip looks at a few likely reasons for authorized generics of Paxlovid not turning up and what lies ahead in 2023 as Hetero's version becomes the first with WHO Prequalification while two Chinese and a Korean company wait in the wings.

As Shanghai enters a second week of a city-wide lockdown with no signs of policy easing, officials are promoting the use of traditional Chinese medicines rather than Pfizer's recently approved Paxlovid.