Building on the success of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, Moderna, Inc. is partnering with the nonprofit scientific research organization IAVI to develop treatments and vaccines against global health threats.

U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. began recruiting participants to the company’s early-stage Covid-19 vaccine study, according to the government database clinicaltrials.gov.

Merck is joining the ranks of pharmaceutical companies that have a Covid-19 vaccine candidate in clinical development and will move the drug manufacturer’s candidate into clinical trials in third-quarter 2020.