Eight of them are located in Asia or Oceania.
Among them are Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, which have been successful in keeping infection rates down, but have been later with the vaccination work than the USA and the EU.
"I think we want to be sure of getting a head start on these other development opportunities," infectious disease doctor Sanjaya Senanayake of the Australian National University Medical School in Canberra told CNN.
The US government is also a stakeholder and has agreed to pay $ 1.2 billion for 1.7 million cures.
The drug has not yet been approved, but Merck has applied for emergency approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Disturb the propagation
A cure consists of 40 tablets taken over a period of five days.
It can be started as soon as a patient is diagnosed with covid-19.
Unlike vaccines, the drug does not use the immune system, but instead interferes with the virus' ability to multiply.
A phase 3 study of the drug was recently terminated prematurely with reference to the good results, writes Läkemedelsvärlden.
Halved mortality
After 29 days, 7.3 percent of patients receiving molnupiravir had been hospitalized, compared with 14.1 percent in the control group receiving ineffective tablets.
Eight people in the control group had died, but no one had received the medicine.
Professor Magnus Gisslén who worked with the Swedish part of the study is hopeful
- Based on the positive results from the Moveeout study, my assessment is that molnupiravir is likely to be an important treatment option for some patients with covid-19 both in Sweden and globally, he says in a press release from the company MSD.