According to the Global Times newspaper, the agreement stimulated the shares in the Chinese firm’s stock markets, with local observers considering it positive as it expands the treatment options for the disease, just when the country suffers a rise in Omicron strain infections.

The signing took place after China’s drug regulators approved on February 11th the import and use of Paxlovid in order to administer it to adult patients showing moderate and mild symptoms of Covid-19 and at risk of worsening, which includes elderly with diabetes, heart disease and serious lung problems.

The authorities, however, urged the doctors who prescribe the medicine to monitor its interaction with other medications and also to investigate in depth how it acts in the human body.

Paxlovid helps reduce the symptoms of the disease, the risks of hospitalization and death in three days. So far it has been licensed for use in more than 50 countries around the world.

China green-lighted the drug amid severe Omicron outbreaks in almost twenty provinces and in Hong Kong, where the amount of new patients has reached a daily record of 50,000.

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