The government will soon approve the anti-viral drug Remdesivir for treatment of coronavirus patients, Japan's first such decision amid the pandemic, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
A government official said separately that the drug will be approved as early as next month to treat patients with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, as moves to develop therapeutic drugs and vaccines have been accelerating around the globe.
"The pharmaceutical approval (of Remdesivir) will be possible shortly," Abe told a Diet session Monday.