Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has given its nod for the wider circulation of abortion pill RU486, effectively nudging the country to the circle of 46 nations worldwide that allow the controversial drug's commercial availability.

In a statement, however, the country's medicine regulator clarified that while its decision will lead to "medical termination . . . now available to a wider group of Australian women," the whole regimen will remain a controlled use of the pregnancy-termination pill.

"Under the provisions of the registration, Marie Stopes International Australia is introducing the medicines in a controlled way for the safe use of the medicines," the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported the TGA as saying on Thursday.

The TGA move extends the number of Australian doctors duly authorised to prescribe RU486, but these general practitioners will need to be accredited by Marie Stopes, which has set up its pharmaceutical firm, the MS Health, to import and retail the abortion drug.

"In line with its global objective of ensuring choice and access to sexual and reproductive health services for women Marie Stopes International has established a not-for-profit health subsidiary, MS Health, to market and distribute reproductive health products," Fairfax reported the firm as saying in a statement issued on Thursday.

"MS Health will be marketing and distributing mifepristone and misoprostol in Australia for medical termination of early pregnancy ... and will only be available on prescription from qualified general practitioners," Marie Stopes added.

Prior to obtaining the license to prescribe and administer to their patients, doctors need first to undergo and complete a "comprehensive training program," that will be directly presided over by Marie Stopes, the health care group said.

The whole training module includes "information on the appropriate selection of women, counselling, the need for patient consent, details of risks and adverse events and the need to follow up women who have been prescribed the tablet," AAP said.

The approval won by Marie Stopes was wholly based on the pill's "efficacy, safety and quality," attributions, the TGA said, adding that use of the drugs will only be allowed on pregnancies that are seven weeks old and below.

The TGA also conceded that risks were still attached with the use of RU486, most prominent of which is the incidence of incomplete abortions that were seen in as many as seven per cent of recorded administration of the pill.

Patients could also experience "nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, heavy vaginal bleeding, severe haemorrhage, endometriosis and urine perforation," as among the adverse effects of RU486.

That is why it is important for patients to be closely monitored by their doctors in order to immediately address these complications in the event they emerge during the 'treatment procedure', the medicine regulator stressed.

Marie Stopes will also be required to regularly watch over the commercial use of RU486 to quickly detect untoward developments relating to the pill and implement the necessary measures when required, the TGA said.

Marie Stopes has yet to issue the likely retail price for RU486 but the Australian Greens, which supports the pill's wider circulation in the country, said the drug will be offered at around $500.

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon is convinced that "the cost will still be steep for some people," and to bring down the cost of RU486 she called on Marie Stopes to move for the listing of the drug under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In a statement, the Gillard government welcomed the TGA's listing of the drug, which means "Australian women will have the same options as . . . the tens of millions of women throughout the world have (who) used RU486."

However, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek noted too that TGA's decision is independent from that of federal authorities and no intervention from Canberra was exerted in the whole listing process.