China hastens the pace of research and production of the first mass experimental drug for a deadly virus that has put the world under serious attack.

According to the sources, Gilead Sciences, a research-based biopharmaceutical company, has developed an experimental drug that has the potential to fight the novel coronavirus. And now it cooperates with one of the largest enterprises for the production of medicines in China to get a working drug for a rapidly spreading virus as soon as possible.

“We have developed the technology to synthesize the active pharmaceutical ingredients of remdesivir, Gilead’s drug that is a leading candidate to treat the highly-infectious virus that’s killed more than 1,000 people,” Suzhou-based BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology said in a statement on Tuesday night.

At this stage, neither the drug nor its production technology has the appropriate General licenses or certificates confirmed by the competent authorities so far.

It has to be mentioned that the company’s shares rose 20% during Tuesday morning trading in Shanghai.

While BrightGene said that it intends to license the drug from Gilead, its move to start manufacturing at this early stage is highly unusual and a potential infringement of the American company’s intellectual property.

It comes a week after Chinese researchers filed an application to patent the drug to treat the new coronavirus, a bid that would give China sway over the global use of the therapy to fight the outbreak.