China sends oral medicine to fight in the frontline against COVID-19

Chinese pharmaceutical giant, China Meheco Group Co, shipped the first batch of coronavirus oral medicine made by Pfizer to the frontline of fight against COVID-19 in China, China Meheco announced on its official WeChat account.

The medication named Paxlovid was imported from Belgium and arrived on Saturday at China Meheco's logistics center in Daxing, Beijing, with all procedures completed such as warehouse entry inspection. Before long, the company received an emergency dispatch order from regulators to ship the drug to support the local government in the fight against the coronavirus.

On Sunday morning, a special truck carrying the medicine departed from the Daxing logistics center headed for Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province, which has been hit by a strong wave of COVID-19 recently. The drug is expected to arrive at Changchun on Sunday and will be sent immediately to the coronavirus frontline upon arrival, the company noted in a statement.

According to China Meheco, the firm recently signed an agreement with Pfizer to take charge of Paxlovid's commercial operations in the Chinese mainland.

Earlier, the drug was included into the latest coronavirus diagnosis and treatment plan approved by the National Medical Products Administration.

China Meheco saw its shares undergo abnormal fluctuations in recent days after the company's stocks surged to the trading limit 10 times in 13 trading days, between March 2 and 18, with a price surge of almost 200 percent.

The company issued a notice on March 18 saying that the drug's ultimate use and sales are relatively uncertain and it is expected that this will have no significant impact on the company's near-term business performance.

As of Sunday evening, China confirmed nearly 20,000 COVID-19 cases. Of them, 12,876 cases are based in Jilin.