hong kongbeijing china is in talks with pfizer inc to secure a licence that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the us firms covid19 antiviral drug paxlovid in china three sources told reuterschinas medical products regulator the national medical products administration nmpa has been leading the talks with pfizer since late last month one of the sources with knowledge of the matter saidbeijing is keen to finalise licensing deal terms before the lunar new year which begins on jan 22 the source saidchinese hospitals are under intense pressure after the government abruptly abandoned its zerocovid policy last month sending infections soaring the surging wave of infections across the country has overwhelmed hospitals emptied pharmacies of medicines and caused international alarmpaxlovid found to have reduced hospitalisations in highrisk patients by around 90 in a clinical trial is in high demand with many chinese attempting to get the drug abroad and have it shipped to china beijing has been largely resistant to western vaccines and treatments oral treatment paxlovid is one of the few foreign ones it has approvedin february last year china approved paxlovid which was supposed to be largely available via hospitals to treat highrisk patients in several provinces pfizer last month reached an agreement to export paxlovid to china through a local company to make the medicine more widely availablethe nmpa and the state council information office which handles media queries for the government did not respond to reuters requests for commenta pfizer spokesperson said the company is actively collaborating with chinese authorities and all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of paxlovid in chinaall the sources declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to mediathe nmpa held a meeting with several chinese drugmakers in late december to discuss preparations needed to make a generic version of paxlovid hoping it would be able to secure the licence in the near future two of the sources saidzhejiang huahai pharmaceutical which signed a deal with pfizer in august to produce paxlovid only for use on the mainland and cspc pharmaceutical group a developer of a potential mrna covid vaccine are among those that attended the meeting the first source saidthe second source said the nmpa has also advised firms to prepare to register with the regulator to produce the generic version of paxlovidgeneric drugmakersprospective candidates including huahai and cspc have in recent weeks been conducting bioequivalence tests which are required by chinese regulators before generic drugs can be launched the two sources and another source with direct knowledge of the matter saidfor a generic drug to be deemed equivalent to a branded medicine such tests are required to make sure they work the same way in the bodyboth huahai and cspc expect to submit the tests results to the nmpa later this month one of them addedhuahai and cspc did not respond to a request for commentin march 35 generic drugmakers around the world including five chinese firms agreed