Sinopharm: Merck Sharp & Dohme's new crown oral drug is expected to be sold before the Spring Festival, the first few hundred thousand boxes

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“Optimistic estimates, Mercer’s new crown oral drug Monoravir is expected to be on sale in the domestic market before the Spring Festival.”

On January 10, Cai Baisong, a member of Shanghai CPPCC and vice president of Sinopharm Holdings, made the above statement in an exclusive interview with reporters at the site of the two sessions in Shanghai.

Cai Baisong, member of Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPPCC and vice president of Sinopharm Holdings

Monoprevir capsules (trade name: Lizoril/LAGEVRIO) were conditionally approved for marketing in China on December 29, 2022. On January 6 of this year, the “Treatment Plan for Novel Coronavirus Infections (Trial Version 10)” (hereinafter referred to as “Version 10”) added the drug to the antiviral treatment content. The drug is also the third approved new coronary oral drug in China after Pfizer Paxlovid and Henan Real Biological Azulfidine.

In September last year, Merck Sharp & Dohme signed a cooperation framework agreement with Sinopharm to grant the distribution and exclusive import rights of monoprevir in China to Sinopharm. In November last year, Merck Sharp & Dohme signed a distribution agreement with Sinopharm Distribution Center Ltd. for the import and distribution of Monoprevir in China.

Ltd. is a subsidiary of Sinopharm Holdings (Sinopharm Holdings, 01099.HK). Sinopharm is the largest wholesaler and retailer of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare products, and a leading provider of supply chain services in China.

According to Sinopharm’s 2022 interim report, during the reporting period, the company achieved business revenue of RMB 261.472 billion, up 4.96% year-on-year, and achieved attributable net profit of RMB 3.694 billion, up 3.1% year-on-year.

Monoravir is expected to be available in the domestic market before the Spring Festival at the earliest

“At present, it is mainly formalities, operational level problems can be overcome.” For the latest progress of monoprevir into domestic sales, Cai buy song to reporters, the early morning of January 4, the first batch of new crown oral drug monoprevir has arrived in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone warehouse. “The number is in the hundreds of thousands of boxes, now arriving every day one after another, and the follow-up will also continue to stock.”

Cai Baisong said that Merck Sharp & Dohme as a global company, there are many production bases, imported drugs from different countries into the country need to record, the relevant departments are further articulated, the company is also still waiting for the approval of the relevant departments.

Cai buy pine to reporters further added that the next company will be to the drug labeled in Chinese, the label may arrive in the next two days, after the sticker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, you can cover the country.

“Confident that it will be finalized soon, because our resources are allocated in place, optimistic estimates are expected before the Spring Festival Monoravir can be sold in the market.” Cai Baisong said to reporters.

Cai Baisong also said, “First of all to comply, we also know that Monoravir into the domestic this thing is very important, so also in the active connection, increase logistics, personnel and other capabilities of the allocation of resources, the Spring Festival period throughout the standby.”

As for the future of Monoravir will be the first to which channels sales, covering which regions? Cai buy pine said that the future market entry is likely to start sales from large hospitals. And whether it will be down to the network diagnosis and treatment platform, Cai Baisong said, the follow-up to the relevant departments of the instructions shall prevail, and then coordinate.

According to the State Drug Administration, Monolaivir capsules are oral small molecule neocoronavirus therapeutic drugs for the treatment of adult patients with mild to moderate novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) with high risk factors for progression to severe disease, such as with advanced age, obesity or overweight, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, severe cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, active cancer and other high risk factors for severe disease Patients. Patients should use the drug strictly as directed under the guidance of their physician.

Supply of adult antipyretics has eased, pediatric doses expected to resume soon

Last December, GMPH supplied about 400 million boxes of four types of fever-reducing drugs, mainly ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

“As of today, I think the supply of antipyretic drugs is basically no longer tight, especially for adults, and they should all be available in retail channels. But the dosage form and brand name drugs for children are still not completely relieved.” The supply of antipyretic drugs for children is also expected to ease soon, said Cai Baisong.

“From raw materials to formulations, the supply of small molecule drugs generally eases quickly.” Cai Baisong further explained that these types of antipyretic drugs are small molecules, chemical synthesis of only a few days, raw materials out of the quick preparation, packaging and then distribution out, the whole supply chain time is not very long and not complicated.

Talking about the shortage of some drugs facing after the optimization and adjustment of the anti-epidemic policy, Cai Buy Song said that the shortage of individual varieties is inevitable during the period affected by the significant increase in demand. “We will articulate with the manufacturers and try to make the supply chain in China as good as possible.”

As a distributor and retailer of medicines, Cai Baisong said, Sinopharm Holdings has done at least three things in addressing the needs of the people. First, the whole staff of Sinopharm Holdings pharmacies should be on duty, and if a patient comes in the first thing to do professional consultation, not just focus on a drug, there are some Chinese medicine and proprietary Chinese medicine can also be addressed. Second, according to the existing inventory and supplier resources, the resources of the whole industry to do combing and then make professional judgments, basically to do pre-judgment. Third, the company’s internal supply chain resources to do a good job to connect, do a good job in the allocation of logistics resources.

Focus on the “combination of medical care” and “primary medical institutions testing level” brought two proposals

Cai Baisong brought two proposals to the two sessions in Shanghai this year, one of which is “the proposal on further promoting the integration of medical and health care”, in which Cai Baisong proposed that Shanghai actively explores community embedded elderly care and community mutual aid elderly care model, and the integration of medical and health care work has made positive progress. However, there are still certain problems in the collaborative management mechanism, protection system and talent training construction.

In this regard, Cai bought pine hope, first of all, to create a more efficient, cross-sectoral horizontal interface mechanism, to speed up the promotion of the integration of medical and health care work. It is mentioned that the top-level design can be considered to set up a special team for the integration of medical and health care in Shanghai, and build a joint working mechanism of health care, civil affairs, medical insurance, finance and other relevant departments. Secondly, build a cooperation platform to encourage social forces to participate in the construction of medical and health care integration. Finally, the integration of multiple talent resources, to improve the service level of medical and health care institutions.

In the proposal of “Suggestions on further improving the inspection level of primary medical institutions based on the existing medical association model and resources”, Cai Baisong said that Shanghai has formed a more mature “grading diagnosis and treatment service grid” based on the grid construction of regional medical associations and inter-hospital cooperation, but the resource base and management model of each medical association are still different. However, the resource base and management mode of each medical association are still different.

Cai Baisong said he hoped that firstly, with the organization of the medical consortium, the supply chain management platform of testing equipment and its supporting testing reagents in the region would be built, and the overall testing costs would be reduced through domestic substitution and mutual deployment of testing resources in the region, and the professional guidance and training of the higher-level hospitals in the medical consortium for the grassroots testing personnel would be strengthened. Secondly, the construction of a regional testing center relying on the laboratory department of the leading hospital of the medical association. Finally, promote the sharing of medical institutions’ examination and test results.