(Yicai Global) March 30 -- Pfizer’s first oral Covid-19 drug, which entered China earlier this month, works, according to a recent small-scale study.

After five days of treatment, the 24 study participants who were using Paxlovid in Shenzhen could meet some of the requirements to be discharged from hospitals based on Covid-19 tests, Professor Lu Hongzhou at the National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, affiliated with the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, said to Yicai Global.

Paxlovid is effective according to the preliminary clinical results, but further study is necessary with more samples to have more accurate results, said Lu. The study started on March 24.

The American drug giant's oral Covid-19 medicine was authorized for emergency use in China on March 15. It sells for CNY2,300 (USD362) per course of treatment. The drug has been included in the country’s medical insurance, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration.

The study participants' average cycle threshold values in nucleic acid testing rose to 35.92 five days after starting the treatment from 19.365, enough to prove that the patients could go home, according to Lu. Their N gene climbed from 18.46 to 34.22, close to the Chinese standards of recovery.

Still, many may recover without the medicine. "Most of the infected in China do not need to take the drug given the domestic situation,” a public health professional said to Yicai Global. But it is difficult to predict who develops severe symptoms while the medicine is more meaningful to those people, the person added.

Paxlovid was developed to treat patients with mild to moderate symptoms and those who are at high risk of experiencing severe symptoms.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi