South Korea plans to secure enough oral COVID-19 medications to treat some 404,000 infected patients from global drugmakers and distribute them starting in the first quarter of next year, the government said Friday.

The government said it signed a pre-purchase contract with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. this month to buy enough medications to prescribe to 70,000 patients, an official from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said.

Last month, the government also clinched a deal with global drugmaker MSD to purchase its oral COVID-19 medication for 200,000 people.

The government said it will speed up efforts to secure the amount for the remaining 134,000 people by closely monitoring the clinical progress of multinational drugmakers and authorities' approval.

The oral medications will be used to treat those with underlying illnesses, elderly patients and others with acute COVID-19 symptoms. (Yonhap)