China¡¯s surprise decision to clear Pfizer Inc.¡¯s coronavirus pill for use offers rare insight into how Beijing may be planning to move beyond the ¡°COVID zero¡± strategy that¡¯s leaving it increasingly isolated.
Paxlovid¡¯s conditional approval over the weekend makes it the first foreign pharmaceutical product China has endorsed for COVID-19, with the country until now sticking steadfastly to domestically developed vaccines and therapeutics, even withholding approval for the highly potent shot co-produced by Pfizer and BioNTech SE.
Pfizer¡¯s pill will serve a strategic purpose, said Zeng Guang, a former chief scientist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention who advised Beijing on COVID-19 control, at a briefing for investors organized by Sealand Securities Co. on Saturday, hours after the approval was announced. The move may lay the groundwork for China¡¯s COVID-19 containment regime to gradually give way to a more flexible approach, he suggested, according to a transcript confirmed by Sealand.
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