China residents scrambling to secure Western medications as a wave of Covid-19 overwhelms the country, driving up demand for treatment -- especially for the country's large undervaccinated elderly population.
As Jo Wang, an event planner in Beijing, watched her family members fall ill with Covid-19 one by one late last month she had a single goal: find antiviral pills to protect her elderly grandfather when his turn came.
Rising frustration over the shortages was compounded by an announcement Sunday that the government had failed to reach an agreement with Pfizer to include Paxlovid under its national insurance plan, with officials saying the price asked was too high. That decision could mean that after March 31, the drug will only be available to those who can afford to pay full price, with current rates reportedly around 1,900 yuan per course.
But there are questions about how broadly the pills will be distributed across China and if there is sufficient medical resources to prescribe them -- an urgent issue as the outbreak shifts from urban hubs to smaller cities and rural China. Experts say procurement appears to be decentralized, with the pills more readily available at hospitals in better-resourced major cities and tougher to find elsewhere.
But as the immediate shortages -- and issues of cost -- play out in one of the world's largest generic drug-producing countries, they also throw the spotlight on global issues related to intellectual property rights, according to experts who examine access to medicines. However, if the drug developer was unwilling to take that step -- as Bourla indicated Pfizer was on Monday -- there are measures China could take, such as pledging to protect companies that make generic supplies or importing generics from elsewhere, using legal measures allowed under the World Trade Organization rules during health emergencies, 't Hoen said.
Health officials have recently sought to assure the public about affordable access to treatments and downplay the potential impact of the government's failure to include Paxlovid in its national insurance scheme. A top health official on Wednesday said that hundreds of pills to alleviate Covid symptoms were already covered by insurance and new viral treatments were in the pipeline.
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