Shares in Chinese pharma firm tank as Covid medicine questioned

After reports questioned the efficacy of pills certified by the government as a coronavirus cure, shares of one of China’s top traditional medicine makers plummeted on Monday.

As the cities confront their biggest Covid-19 outbreaks since the pandemic began, Shanghai officials have joined their Hong Kong counterparts in dispensing ‘Lianhua Qingwen,’ an herbal medication promoted for fever and sore throats.

But on Sunday, popular Chinese health platform Dingxiang Yisheng said the capsules, made by Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical, could not prevent cases of the virus, in a report then picked up by state media.

Monday’s share dump sent them falling to 32.39 yuan ($5) with the stocks hitting the daily limit of 10 percent on the Shenzhen exchange.

Last week, Wang Sicong, an influencer and son of one of China’s wealthiest scions, ignited debate about the drug on Weibo when he reposted a social media video questioning whether the World Health Organization had ever recommended it for use against Covid-19.

The United States and other countries have warned there is no evidence the medicine works to prevent or cure coronavirus, even as it has increasingly been promoted by government authorities in China and Hong Kong.

The US Food and Drug Administration has said it has not approved Lianhua Qingwen, and that coronavirus-related claims about it were “not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence”.

In 2020, Beijing approved the remedy — initially developed for SARS and made up of ingredients like honeysuckle and apricot seeds — as a coronavirus treatment.

In financial centers Hong Kong and Shanghai, which are struggling to quash fast-spreading Omicron-fuelled surges, boxes of Lianhua Qingwen tablets have been included in government care packages.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam even claimed last month that traditional Chinese medicine may be more effective than Western medicine at preventing Covid and accelerating recovery.

Shanghai, China’s largest city, has been locked down since March as cases have topped 25,000 a day — low compared with parts of the world now living with the virus, but virtually unheard of under China’s “zero-Covid” strategy.

Last month, during the height of its Omicron-driven outbreak, Hong Kong had one of the highest virus-related fatality rates in the world.