Shanghai-developed COVID drug gets green light

A drug developed to treat adult patients with light or medium COVID-19 infection by a Shanghai biomedicine company has been approved by China's top medical product regulator, the Shanghai Drug Administration announced on Sunday.

VV116, a small molecule COVID-19 infection treatment drug from Shanghai Wangshi Biomedical Technology Co Ltd, has been approved by the National Medical Products Administration to hit the market under emergency review and approval procedures.

Patients are required to take the medicine strictly under the guidance of doctors.

The National Medical Products Administration has ordered the biomedical company to continue to conduct relevant research and submit subsequent research results.

The drug was jointly developed by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under Chinese Academy of Sciences and the biomedical company, and it is manufactured by Shanghai Desano Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd.

Last year, Shanghai had four self-developed innovative medicines approved, topping the nation.

Meanwhile, Shanghai had nine innovative medical apparatus and instrument products approved and on the market in 2022.

In recent years, the city's drug regulation authorities have taken a raft of measures to fuel innovation momentum in the medicine, medical apparatus and instruments area and help innovation products hit the market.

Efforts are made to tackle difficulties in their registration, clinical tests and report.

Under combined efforts, the review time of registration has been significantly cut for medicine, medical apparatus and instruments registered in Shanghai.