Ascletis Pharma Inc. announced signing of the ritonavir tablet purchase agreement between Phokam Pharmaceutical Import-Export Co., Ltd (as buyer) of Laos and Ascletis Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (as seller), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascletis Pharma Inc.
Ritonavir oral tablet is a pharmacokinetic booster of multiple oral antiviral drugs targeting viral proteases. Ritonavir oral tablet is a component of oral antiviral drug Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir+ritonavir).
Ascletis sells ritonavir oral tablets worldwide. Ascletis owns the only authorized ritonavir oral tablet in China, which passed bioequivalence study. Ascletis' ritonavir oral tablet was approved in September 2021 by China National Medical Products Administration (国药准字H20213698). Ascletis applied the sophisticated formulation technology to significantly increase the human bioavailability of ritonavir which has a very poor solubility and successfully achieved human bioequivalence with the ritonavir oral tablets produced by the originator, AbbVie. Ascletis is planning to file generic drug applications for registrations in multiple countries worldwide. On January 3, 2022, Ascletis announced that ritonavir oral tablet annual production capacity has been expanded to 100 million tablets and can be further rapidly expanded based on market demand.