China-Developed Covid Pill Matches Paxlovid, Study Shows

A China-developed Covid antiviral pill appeared to be as effective as Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid with fewer safety concerns, according to clinical trial results published Wednesday in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial compared 384 patients taking the drug VV116 developed by Chinese drugmakers Junshi Biosciences and Vigonvita Life Science with 387 patients taking Paxlovid. It found that VV116 was not inferior to Paxlovid with respect to the time to sustained clinical recovery. Drugmakers run noninferiority trials to evaluate a drug compared with an established standard treatment.