The demand for Indian generic drugs have been cumulative in China amidst the ongoing COVID wave in the country, while the experts also warned the consumers to be beware of the duplicate pills available in the market. China’s National Health Security Administration averred on Sunday that Pfizer’s Paxlovid oral medication for Covid-19, could not be considered under the “register of drugs in the basic medical insurance”, as the quotation made by the company was much high, as stated by media reports.
“On the Chinese e-commerce platforms… At least four generic COVID drugs produced in India – Primovir, Paxista, Molnunat, and Molnatris – have been listed for sale in recent weeks. Primovir and Paxista are both generic versions of Paxlovid, while the other two are generic versions of Molnipiravir,” Chinese media agency Sixth Tone reported.
All four drugs have been sanctioned for urgent use by the Indian authorities however not applicable to be used in China, it said.
He Xiaobing, the head of Beijing Memorial Pharmaceutical, spoke to Sixth Tone that India was “the only country where we can source reliable and affordable COVID drugs with guaranteed therapeutic effects”.
“But the strong demand was used by illegal groups who produce counterfeit drugs. This will badly affect patients’ treatment,” he added.
China’s health system is quite unstable due to the sudden surge of the virus in the country, which is expected to the well being of 1.4 billion people. The drugs are overpriced which have been harnessed by multinational pharmaceutical giants.
While India has been persuading China to give a green signal to its pharma products and reduce costs for the citizens which will reflect on the trade deficit between the two countries.
