China’s State Drugmakers Scramble to Stock Pharmacy Shelves Amid Run on Covid Medicines

Some state-owned drugmakers have moved to round-the-clock production and ramped up overseas procurement after the sudden reversal of China’s “zero-Covid” policy cleared pharmacy shelves of fever and cough medicines.

China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) (HK.01099) has moved more than 160 of its subsidiaries to a 24-hour production schedule in order to expand output of key medicines to three times normal levels and staff at retail pharmacies it operates are working more than 20 hours a day in some cases, Caixin has learned.