Chinese firm's Covid-19 drug claims draw skepticism

Chinese biotech firm Kintor Pharmaceutical Limited saw its stock price jump by more than 20% the day after it announced on April 25 that it had "completed the first patient enrollment and dosing" in a late-stage US clinical trial of its experimental Covid-19 treatment.

It was the company's latest announcement about the progress of the drug, Proxalutamide. The Hong Kong-listed company's stock price has nearly quadrupled since March 1 as some analysts wrote about the big sales potential for a Covid-19 treatment. Kintor has seen its market capitalisation soar to HK$23.4 billion (US$3 billion) from HK$6.6 billion on March 1.