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UPDATE 1-In China, no easy way to get Pfizer's COVID drug Paxlovid

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(Updates a Jan 16 story with United Family Hospital's response on Paxlovid price)

By Sophie Yu and Martin Quin Pollard

BEIJING, Jan 16 (Reuters) - When Li's 83-year-old father with diabetes started coughing and complaining of body aches last month, the Beijing resident became anxious about finding a treatment for COVID-19 in case his parent had caught the virus sweeping the city.

He heard at that time that Pfizer's anti-viral drug Paxlovid was an effective treatment, but patients could only get it prescribed if they were admitted to hospital, and only if the drug was in stock.

The first hospital they visited conducted a CT scan that showed his lungs were infected, but turned them away, saying no beds were available, said Li, who only gave his surname due to sensitivity over how authorities might view his account.

After two more days of frantic calls to families and friends, a contact finally found them a space at another hospital, but it took a further antigen test and second CT scan before it agreed to prescribe the drug.

With his father admitted to an intensive care unit, Li was worried that it had taken too long to get effective treatment.

"I’m not sure if Paxlovid can help him. I think it's because when he got the medicine he already had the virus for a week," Li told Reuters on Jan.12.

"Now we can do little but pray."

His father died the same day.

Li's experience, local media reports and online posts bear testimony to the difficulties faced obtaining Paxlovid in China through official channels.

Paxlovid - a combination of two anti viral drugs - is one of the few foreign oral treatments approved by Beijing and a clinical trial has found it to have reduced hospitalisations in high-risk patients by around 90%.

Having been approved in February last year, Paxlovid was scarcely used in China until December when the government started lifting its strict containment policy, and wave of COVID infections began to build.

RAMPING UP SUPPLIES

Chinese authorities have acknowledged that supplies of Paxlovid are still insufficient to meet demand, even as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said last week that thousands of courses of the treatment were shipped to the country last year and in the past couple of weeks millions more were shipped.

"Pfizer is actively collaborating with Chinese authorities and all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China. We remain committed to fulfilling the COVID-19 treatment needs of Chinese patients and partnering with the Chinese government," the company said in a statement.