A number of drugs used to treat symptoms of COVID-19 will be available at a lower cost for low-income countries.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis's Sandoz division will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs.

They range from antibiotics and steroids to diarrhea pills.

The medicines will be made available for 79 countries listed by the World Bank as lower or middle income.

Announcing the move on Thursday (July 16), the Basel-based drugmaker plans to maintain the zero-profit program until the pandemic ends or a vaccine or cure is found.

Novartis has not seen supply-chain shortages despite increasing demands for COVID-19 medicines.

But it said the new program is aimed at helping to keep vulnerable healthcare systems in Africa, Asia, South America and European countries Ukraine and Moldova from becoming overloaded.

Novartis's Chief Operating Officer told Reuters that "We shouldn't underestimate the stress that COVID puts particularly on fragile health systems."

The specifics on the drugs' eventual costs, compared to commercial prices weren't released.

But the medicines being offered up have been around for decades and are comparatively cheap to make.