Chinese COVID-19 pill coming soon

A new COVID-19 medicine made by a Chinese pharmaceutical company in Jiangsu province is expected to go on sale as soon as February, according to the Jiangsu Medical Products Administration.

The pharmaceutical company, Simcere, owns the intellectual property rights for the pill — SIM0417. It was jointly developed with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In mid-December, 1,208 patients were enrolled in the Phase 3 clinical trial of the pill, the administration's notice said.