A staff member works on the production line making Lianhua Qingwen capsules at Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A key Chinese medicine against COVID-19 has been approved for sale in Singapore, according to the drug producer Yiling Pharmaceutical.

The pharmaceutical firm based in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern China's Hebei province, said Lianhua Qingwen Capsule has been officially listed as Chinese Proprietary Medicine by Singapore's Healthy Sciences Authority, which means the Chinese medicine has been granted market access to Singapore.

Clinical observation in designated COVID-19 hospitals in China has showed that traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) including the Lianhua Qingwen Capsule are effective in the treatment of over 90 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland.

Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said TCM treatment has significantly lowered the proportion of patients whose conditions turn from mild to severe.

In vitro experiment has proved that Lianhua Qingwen Capsule has a weak inhibitory effect on the virus but has good repair effects on cell damages and inflammation caused by the novel coronavirus, renowned Chinese respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan has said.

The use of the medicine has been detailed in China's Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia.

Wu Xiangjun, general manager of Yiling Pharmaceutical, said Lianhua Qingwen Capsule has gained market approvals by drug administrations in eight countries including Brazil, Romania, Thailand, Ecuador and Singapore.

The company has donated a total of 3.5 million yuan (about 500,000 U.S. dollars) worth of Lianhua Qingwen to Iraq, Italy and other countries to aid their efforts in fighting the pandemic, said Wu.

He said the company's production lines of the medicine are working at full speed to catch up with orders from home and abroad.