A Japanese medicine manufacturer says it plans to start distributing its oral coronavirus medicine through ordinary market channels. This means patients across the country could soon be prescribed the medicine more quickly.

MSD, which is the Japanese arm of US pharmaceutical firm Merck, said on Thursday that the new system would make it easier for medical facilities and pharmacies to secure necessary amounts of the medicine Lagevrio.

The government is currently in charge of distributing the drug, also known as molnupiravir, to registered institutions as supply is limited.

But MSD says it has prepared sufficient production capacity to ensure a stable supply.

MSD says patients will pay nothing for the drug as the government is covering the cost. The price of a twice-daily, five-day treatment course has been set at about 94,000 yen, or roughly 700 dollars.

The drug was developed by Merck. The Japanese government authorized it last December as the country's first oral medicine for patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms.

More than 380,000 people across the country at risk of developing serious symptoms have taken the drug.