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 The National Medical Products Administration said Paxlovid is
approved to treat adults who have mild to moderate COVID-19 and high
risk of progressing to a severe condition. Further study on the drug
needed to be conducted and submitted to the authority, it said.
It is not immediately clear if China is already in talks with Pfizer
to procure the pill.
"This is an important milestone in our fight against COVID-19," a
Pfizer representative said in a statement, without providing
information about procurement.
The approval is a boost to Pfizer which expects $22 billion in 2022
sales of the treatment.
Pfizer executives have said the company is in active discussions
with over 100 countries about Paxlovid, and has the capacity to
provide 120 million courses if needed.
While a number of vaccines are available worldwide to help prevent
infection and serious illness, including one made by Pfizer, there
are limited treatment options for people infected with COVID-19.
Pfizer in December said final trial results showed its treatment
reduced the chance of hospitalisation or death by 89% in COVID-19
patients at risk of severe illness given the treatment within three
days of the onset of symptoms, and by 88% when given within five
days of onset.
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 The United States is paying around $530 for each
course of Paxlovid and $700 for each course of
rival COVID-19 pill molnupiravir developed by
Merck & Co.
China has kept daily number of new COVID-19
patients with confirmed symptoms to below 250,
and sometimes fewer than 10, in the past year.
The number is small for its 1.4 billion
population and by global standards, thanks to
China's approach of quickly containing any local
flare-ups as soon as possible and its weeks-long
quarantine requirement for most travellers
arriving from abroad.
China has yet to approve any COVID-19 vaccines
developed by foreign drugmakers but has
vaccinated 87.1% of its entire population by
Feb. 7 using several domestically developed
shots.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and John Horwitz;
Editing by Miyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast.)
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