Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in a deal brokered by Biden

On March 2, officials from US president Joe Biden’s administration confirmed that the president will be using the Defense Production Act to rope pharma giant Merck into making some of Johnson & Johnson’s newly authorized Covid-19 vaccine. A day earlier, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that Johnson & Johnson would be exhausting its inventory of ready-made vaccines by distributing 3.9 million doses immediately. According to the Washington Post, that puts J&J behind its contractual obligation with the US government to distribute 100 million doses by the end of June (pdf)—but the company believes it can make up the difference in that time.