Kantaro Koiya, Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese health ministry panel on Friday recommended approval of the COVID-19 antiviral pill developed by Merck & Co Inc, part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to roll out new treatments by year-end as concerns rise about the Omicron variant.

Based on Kishida’s earlier announcements, the panel has decided that shipments of 200k doses will begin this weekend.

Shigeyuki Shigeyuki Goto, health minister, said after the announcement that “I am convinced the distribution of the drug is a major milestone for our nation’s COVID-19 handling”, adding that pharmacies and some medical institutions will receive the pill by Monday.

Japan places a high value on oral therapies to avoid serious infection and death should the sixth pandemic erupt. Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics were paid $1.2 billion by the government last month for their drug, molnupiravir.

Kishida, in addition, announced last Wednesday a deal for 2,000,000 pills of an antiviral drug developed by Kishida Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:) And Japan’s Shionogi & Co is expected to soon file for approval of its own treatment, supplying another 1 million doses by early next year.

The Merck pill was approved by U.S. regulators for use in high-risk adult patients.

Following promising initial results, many countries bought Merck’s molnupiravir. But company data released in November revealed that the drug is significantly less effective. France cancelled the order on Wednesday.

Goto answered questions about the controversy over molnupiravir’s effectiveness by saying that Friday’s Japanese panel reviewed the use of the drug primarily based on its earlier results, and adding that “the updated test result does not negate” the drug.

Japan confirmed this week the first cases of Omicron infection that cannot be linked to foreign travelers. Omicron variant transmissions have been detected in Osaka and Kyoto in western Japan. On Friday, a possible case in Tokyo was reported.