Gates Foundation allots $120 million for poor nations to get COVID-19 drug

FILE PHOTO: A person passes by on a scooter in front of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, U.S. May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

(Reuters) - The Gates Foundation will allocate up to $120 million to help lower-income countries get an experimental COVID-19 drug being developed by U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co Inc in the battle against coronavirus, it said on Wednesday.

The money will support efforts to develop and make generic versions of what could become the first oral antiviral medication for the disease if it wins regulatory approval, the foundation said in a statement.