Zhejiang Ausun Pharmaceutical Co Ltd received approval from China's National Medical Products Administration on Jan 13 to produce the homegrown anti-COVID-19 drug Azvudine.

The production lines at Ausun will be subjected to compliance checks before the drug is sold in the domestic market, the company announced.

The move comes after Azvudine and Qingfei Paidu granules, a widely used traditional Chinese medicine that is effective in treating the COVID-19, made it to the 2022 national healthcare list released earlier this year. Pfizer's Paxlovid failed to enter the list because of its high price.

Last July, the National Medical Products Administration issued conditional approval for Azvudine to be used to treat adult COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms. The medication was previously approved as a HIV/AIDS drug in July of 2021.

Founded in Linhai, a county-level city in Taizhou in April 2010, Ausun was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on May 9, 2017.

The company is mainly engaged in the R&D, production and sales of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and pharmaceutical intermediates, as well as the provision of customized production and R&D services to customers.