(Yicai Global) April 27 -- Shares in Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical more than doubled at one point in Hong Kong today and shot up by the exchange-imposed limit in Shenzhen after the Chinese drugmaker said it has obtained the rights to produce and sell an experimental Covid-19 tablet in China.

Xinhua Pharma’s Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG:0719] closed up 50.2 percent at HKD6.55 (USD0.83). Earlier in the day it had hit HKD10. Its Shenzhen-listed shares [SHE:000756] soared 10 percent to CNY11.35 (USD1.73) giving it a market valuation of CNY7.6 billion (USD1.2 billion) on the mainland.

Xinhua Pharma has secured the rights to produce and sell Azvudine, a drug originally used to treat HIV-infected patients, the firm said yesterday. Developer Henan Genuine Biotech began to apply it on Covid-19 patients after the pandemic broke out and it finished clinical trials last month. The drug will go to market in China and other countries that the pair agree on it, the Zibo, eastern Shandong province-based company added.

At present there is only one orally-taken Covid-19 medicine available in China, and that is US biomedical giant Pfizer’s Paxlovid. China approved the import of the medicine in February and it now selling for CNY2,300 (USD351) a box.

Covid-19 pills are becoming a focus of the market amid a fresh wave of outbreaks driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Other such tablet-form medicines now at the clinical trial stage are Shanghai Junshi Biosciences’ VV116, Kintor Pharmaceuticals’ Proxalutamide and Simcere Pharmaceutical’s SIM0417.

Xinhua Pharma, which is owned by state-owned conglomerate Hualu Holding, logged a 7.3 percent gain in net profit last year from the year before to CNY349 million (USD53.2 million) and a 9.2 percent jump in revenue to CNY6.6 billion (USD1 billion), according to its latest financial report.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor