China’s Fosun posts 26 per cent jump in net profit, gets ready to make generic Pfizer and Merck Covid-19 pills

Pfizer licence to ‘hone Fosun Pharma’s image as a leading player’, after endorsement by UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool, analyst says

Parent firm Fosun International reports 26 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit to US$1.6 billion for 2021

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A laboratory manufacturing Pfizer’s Paxlovid in Freiburg, Germany. Fosun Pharma is also eligible to produce and supply the raw ingredients for the drug, which is called nirmatrelvir. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:20pm, 24 Mar 2022

Fosun International, one of China’s largest private conglomerates, has stepped up preparations to produce cheaper generic versions of Covid-19 medications developed by American pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Merck.

Its subsidiary Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group is looking into which of its existing plants can be used to manufacture generic versions of Pfizer’s nirmatrelvir, which is sold under the Paxlovid brand name, and Merck’s molnupiravir, Fosun International co-CEO Chen Qiyu said during an earnings briefing on Thursday.

“We are trying to figure out which production base [under Fosun Pharma] will be the ideal place to make the medications,” he said. “Among them, we are considering the factories at our units, such as Guilin Pharma and YaoPharma.”

Fosun Pharma is one of five Chinese drug firms licensed to make generic versions of the Pfizer and Merck Covid-19 medications. The firm has, however, played a significant role in the battle against the coronavirus in the region – it has the exclusive rights to distribute Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has been restricted to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, however, because it has yet to receive an approval from mainland Chinese regulators.