Chinese pharmaceutical companies saw their shares climb yesterday as Covid-19 infections in the mainland are expected to hit a peak of 65 million per week in June.
Kintor Pharmaceutical (9939) soared 6.7 percent and CanSino Biologics (6185) jumped 4.4 percent, Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical (0719) rose 6.1 percent and Shanghai Junshi Biosciences (1877) climbed 3.1 percent.
Among others, Clover Biopharmaceuticals (2197) rose by 1.45 percent and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (2196) by 1.15 percent.
The rally bucked a trend that saw the market benchmark fall 246 points or 1.25 percent yesterday, and came after China’s top Covid-19 expert Zhong Nanshan predicted coronavirus infections to surge from 40 million cases a week at the end of this month to a peak of 65 million per week by the end of next month.
Citing calculations based on a SEIR or susceptible-exposed infectious-recovered model, Zhong said that it would be very difficult to avoid the coming infection spike.
China ended the zero-Covid policy last December, and a person infected with Omicron could pass the virus on to more than 30 individuals.
The expert said two vaccines against XBB’s new variant strains have gained preliminary approval from Chinese authorities and four other vaccines are in the pipeline.