The US government has agreed to pay about 1.2 billion US Dollars for 1.7 million courses of Merck's experimental COVID-19 treatment, if it is proven to work in an ongoing large trial and authorized by US regulators.<br />'' <br />''The oral antiviral treatment, molnupiravir, aims to stop COVID-19 from progressing and can be given early in the course of the disease, similar to Tamiflu to treat influenza.<br />'' <br />''The treatment course being tested in the trial is an oral dose given every 12 hours for five days.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">If successful, Merck said it expects to file for the emergency use authorization of molnupiravir in the second half of 2021 at the earliest.</span><br />