Merck

Merck & Co. will help make rival Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine in order to boost the slower-than-promised production of the one-dose shot, U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 2.

Johnson & Johnson’s newly authorized Covid-19 vaccine started shipping and the company’s top executive said on March 1 that Americans should be able to receive the single-dose shot within 24 to 48 hours, adding a third vaccine in the United States.

As the world awaits the production and distribution of hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization, biopharmaceutical companies and manufacturers are developing the next wave of vaccines and therapeutics to combat the pandemic.