As China grapples with a new wave of Covid-19, many citizens are desperate to find Pfizer’s Paxlovid, a treatment that can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in at-risk patients if it is taken at the first symptoms, and which would be the subject of shortages throughout the country, reports CNN, this Friday, January 13. The demand for this treatment, authorized since February 2022, has exploded in the country since the start of the last wave of Covid, in particular because a large part of the elderly population has not been vaccinated against the virus.
Boxes sold for up to eight times its price on the Chinese market
Jo Wang thus explains to our colleagues that she went out of her way to obtain this treatment intended for her grandfather … as a preventive measure, the latter having not yet caught the Covid. If she ended up getting the precious Covid-19 pills using an official route, many would turn to the black market where Pfizer’s treatment, like Merck’s molupiravir, is selling for up to eight times its price. price on the Chinese market – without knowing if it is truly an illegally imported product, or a counterfeit. On social networks, scams have multiplied.
The frustration caused by the shortage was all the more accentuated as the government announced last week that it had not managed to reach an agreement with Pfizer on the price of Paxlovid, which was deemed too high. This medicine will therefore not be included in the national insurance scheme for the time being.
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