Russia & China approve Pfizer pill to treat “COVID”

Riley Waggaman

On March 25, TASS reported Russian pharmaceutical company Pharmasyntez, which produces Sputnik Light, was applying to manufacture a COVID drug based on a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir.

At the end of 2021, Russia’s health ministry included this drug combo on its list of approved COVID treatments.

“Nirmatrelvir and ritonavir” is an antiviral drug developed by Pfizer under the brand name Paxlovid.

The Big Pharma behemoth has partnered with dozens of generic drugmakers around the world in order to supply 95 countries with the medication, which allegedly reduces COVID-attributed hospitalizations for “high-risk” individuals by 90%.

Pfizer, which negotiated a deal with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), will not receive royalties from the sale of the generic versions of Paxlovid. Because Pfizer cares.

Dozens of companies will produce generic versions of Paxlovid (source). It’s unclear if Pharmasyntez is part of the MPP agreement or is “doing its own thing”.

In November, the Russian government granted approval to Pfizer to run clinical trials for Paxlovid in Russia. Pfizer recently halted all clinical trials in Russia in response to the “special operation” in Ukraine.

It’s unclear if Pharmasyntez even has formal authorization from Pfizer to produce a generic version of Paxlovid.

Last year, Gilead filed a lawsuit against the Russian government for granting a license to Pharmasyntez to produce remdesivir, another “safe and effective” COVID treatment.

Here’s what we do know, though: nothing will stop Russia from pushing Pfizer pills—not even unprecedented sanctions. That’s true commitment.

A safe & effective… HIV treatment?

According to gushing media reports, Paxlovid’s magic COVID-fighting properties can be attributed to one of the drug’s key ingredients, ritonavir, “a medication commonly used in combination treatments for HIV.”

(This makes perfect sense. After all, AIDS and COVID have a lot in common.)

More keywords: Paxlovid, Ritonavir.

Pfizer re-packaged HIV/AIDS medication Ritonavir (with nirmatrelvir) as ‘Paxlovid’, their new Covid treatment.

The first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 to be approved by the FDA.https://t.co/jeF0Sd6dvahttps://t.co/KrR6RDVCqX

— Calvin (@calvinrobinson) February 8, 2022

Oddly enough, the drug can actually lead to…HIV-1 drug resistance?

Paxlovid has a warning;

A warning of Paxlovid may lead to a risk of HIV-1 developing resistance to HIV.

I’m going out on a limb here, 2023 we will see a huge increase HIV.

Just give us ivermectin and be done with it. https://t.co/NNb64S3sBc pic.twitter.com/RWuof745t2

— Mike Glass ☮️ 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺🇮🇪🇮🇹 (@mik_glass) January 18, 2022

Just wait until you see the side affects of PAXLOVID that FDA approved under EUA to treat CV…. pic.twitter.com/Iut7gVrxTt

— NavyCJ 🌎✈️⚓️✝️ (@NavyCJ) March 22, 2022

What the heck is going on here? Probably nothing. Pfizer cares.

With Paxlovid set to hit pharmacy shelves around the globe, some paranoid wackos have been pointing to research showing vaccines based on adenovirus 5 (Ad5) might increase the risk of HIV infection. Which vaccines use Ad5? Guess.

Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca used blueprints of failed HIV/AIDS vaccines to developing the COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists working on vaccines for these two viruses have called for collaboration. pic.twitter.com/od77mlJ6PC

— Yaw abban. (@YAbbanx) April 5, 2021

Fun fact: researchers have struggled to create an adenovirus-based HIV vaccine, but for whatever reason, the vaccine platform worked like a charm when developing safe and effective COVID shots.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Congratulations to Paxlovid, the first foreign-made COVID drug to be approved by Beijing!

Paxlovid is so safe and so effective that even China craves it. This is quite an achievement: according to the South China Morning Post, the Pfizer pill is the first foreign-made COVID treatment to enter China’s market.

As the outlet reported, China’s drug regulator:

conditionally approved Paxlovid to treat adults with mild to moderate Covid-19 who had a high risk of becoming severely ill, including the elderly and patients with chronic kidney issues, cardiovascular or chronic lung disease, diabetes and other high-risk factors for Covid-19.”

This is weird because ritonavir’s listed side effects include diabetes and kidney stones.

Anyway, here’s a video published by Chinese media showing off the country’s first batch of health-preserving Pfizer pills:

By @XHscitech
“The first batch of imported #Pfizer‘s #Paxlovid COVID-19 pill has arrived in #Shanghai”pic.twitter.com/otGJAahZoi

— China4Tech (@China4Tech) March 23, 2022

Very cool.

Everyone loves Paxlovid.

good rule of thumb is don’t take pills or shots the government is giving out because government isn’t a thing that medicates its citizens. pic.twitter.com/eK8cR3LPF9

— Slothrop (@gnocchiwizard) March 26, 2022

And when I say Paxlovid is expensive, I mean it is very expensive. Around 530 dollars a regiment. You also need to take it 5 days after symptoms appear. It’s very specific on how it’s used properly. https://t.co/jqqbaD9g8J

— COVID News Network (CNN) 🦠 😷 (@COVIDnewsfast) March 19, 2022

Don’t worry, the Dragon-Bear Alliance is setting a trap for Pfizer. Trust the plan.

Riley Waggaman is your humble Moscow correspondent. He worked for RT, Press TV, Russia Insider, yadda yadda. In his youth, he attended a White House lawn party where he asked Barack Obama if imprisoned whistleblower Bradley Manning (Chelsea was still a boy back then) “had a good Easter.” Good times good times. You can subscribe to his Substack here, or follow him on twitter.