The herbal pill that China pushes as a remedy for Covid
The Chinese authorities promote the use of an herbal pill for the treatment of Covid and the company that produces it is booming, but the son of a millionaire tried to insinuate some doubts about its effectiveness and was banned from Weibo. Facts, numbers and mysteries
The tentative easing of anti-Covid measures in China is benefiting local stocks. One of the luckiest is certainly that of the pharmaceutical company Shijiazhuang Yiling, which produces a herbal pill that the authorities have advertised as effective in treating mild forms of Covid.
Unfortunately, however, there is no publicly available data on peer-reviewed clinical trials to support this claim.
WHAT PILL IS IT
The main ingredients of Lianhua Qingwen tablet are Japanese honeysuckle, rhubarb root and the fruit of the forsythia plant.
But these pills are not new. Indeed, the Shijiazhuang Yiling company began developing them in 2003 for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Since then, China's Health Ministry and the National Health Commission have recommended it for colds and flu, Quartz reports.
With the pandemic, it then experienced a new golden moment as it was promoted by the Beijing government as an alternative to the antiviral drugs of US or European pharmaceutical companies.
A PILL THAT MAKES DISCUSS
In China, few dare to openly criticize the government. However, last April, Wang Sicong, the only son of one of the richest men in the country – his father, Wang Jianlin, is the chairman of Wanda Group, China's largest real estate firm – publicly questioned the pill's effectiveness. with a video on the social Weibo, where he had more than 40 million followers and from which he was immediately banned. The charge was "violation of the laws and regulations on the matter".
Wang only asked if the product had been approved by the World Health Organization.
In another video, obviously removed, Wang would also have urged the Chinese securities supervisory authority to investigate Shijiazhuang Yiling, stating that there are too few media in the country who dare to seek evidence and tell the truth.
At the time, shares of the Chinese-listed pharmaceutical fell 20% .
According to company documents, cited by Quartz , the company has received 50 million yuan ($7 million) in government grants to conduct clinical research on Lianhua Qingwen and to register the tablets internationally.
WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES THINK
But Australia has banned them because they contain a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine. In Singapore, however, a clinical study is underway that will presumably determine its effectiveness by the end of 2023.
As of today, Lianhua Qingwen has obtained approval for registration or import license in 30 countries and regions around the world, Shijiazhuang Yiling told CPC news outlet Global Times .
GOLDEN BUSINESS FOR SHIJIAZHUANG YILING
But once doubts and dissent were banned, Shijiazhuang Yiling continued with its activity and, indeed, in recent days, writes Quartz , its shares have soared, in fact their price has risen by almost 24% from last week .
The market's enthusiasm is due to the fact that Beijing last Friday announced a review of the strict rules imposed by the zero Covid strategy, including a 2-day reduction in the quarantine for those who have had close contacts or arrive from abroad and the elimination of 'secondary' contact tracing.
In some pharmacies herbal pills would already be unobtainable. Not surprisingly, Shijiazhuang Yiling's semi-annual report, cited by Quartz , claims that traditional Chinese cold and flu remedies, including Lianhua Qingwen pills, now account for 46% of total revenue.
Other pharmaceutical stocks, such as CR Sanjiu, the domestic cold medicine maker, also saw a surge, according to Global Times .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/la-pillola-a-base-di-erbe-che-la-cina-spinge-come-rimedio-al-covid/ on Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:18:20 +0000.