ROME, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Italy"s COVID-19 Special Commissioner was given a mandate by the health ministry to acquire 50,000 courses of each of Merck"s (MRK.N) and Pfizer"s (PFE.N) COVID-19 antiviral drugs, his office said in a statement. It added that the procedure to undersign the contracts with the two companies will soon be started and that Italy would have the two drugs, known as Monlupiravir and Paxlovid respectively, as soon as the two companies will be able to supply them.Countries have scrambled to secure doses of the Pfizer and Merck oral drugs after promising data reported by both companies. Reporting by Angelo Amante, writing by Giulia Segreti; editing by Agnieszka Flak Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.