January 11, 2023: On Monday, Pfizer is not in talks with the Chinese administration to license a generic idea of its Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid for use there, but is in discussions regarding a price for the branded product, Chief Executive Albert Bourla added.

On Friday, Reuters reported that China was discussing with Pfizer to secure a license that permitted domestic drugmakers to manufacture and give a generic version of the U.S. company’s Covid-19 antiviral Paxlovid in China.

Referring to that report, Bourla, who speaks at JPMorgan’s healthcare conference in San Francisco, added, “We are not in discussions. We have an agreement for local manufacturing of Paxlovid in China. So we have a local partner to make Paxlovid for us, and then we sell it to the Chinese market.”

Bourla stated that the firm had shipped thousands of treatments in 2022 to China and, in a previous couple of weeks, had increased that to millions.

On Sunday, Healthcare Security Administration said that the country would have Paxlovid in increasing its list of medicines covered by basic medical insurance ideas as the U.S. company quoted an increasing price for the Covid-19 drug.

Bourla said that discussions with China on future treatment pricing had broken off after China had asked for a lower price than Pfizer charges for most lower-middle-income countries.

“They are the second, increasing economy in the world, and I don’t think they should pay minimum El Salvador,” Bourla said.

Still, Bourla stated that the removal from the list would only affect the company’s business there in April. He said the firm had recently shipped millions of drug courses to China.

He said that the company could end up which sells only to the private market in China.