Following COVID-19 vaccines, oral COVID-19 treatments are also expected to enter the market soon as the government plans to phase in 404,000 courses of COVID-19 oral antivirals from next February.

If oral treatments for COVID-19 are introduced, Korea will have laid the groundwork for managing the COVID-19 virus like influenza.

Also, clinical results for COVID-19 treatment candidates are being announced one after another. MSD's 'molnupiravir' was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 50% if taken within 5 days of symptom onset.

Pfizer also released clinical results showing that ‘Paxlovid’ reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% if taken wi