Charles Morgan How Businesses Are Fighting COVID-19

Plus: Should Everyone Wear A Mask In Public?

Businesses around the world are shifting into overdrive to help battle the coronavirus, providing everything from rubber gloves and ventilators to diagnostic tools and, hopefully soon, vaccines. While the pandemic continues to wreak havoc, large corporations and small businesses are developing creative solutions to halt the spread of the virus.

Just as automakers famously shifted to make tanks and planes during World War II, today’s global giants — LVMH, Ford and GE to name a few — are retooling their production lines to help make everything from hand sanitizers to respirators. On the medical front, there are more than three dozen COVID-19 vaccines under development, a smart move considering that two out of every three vaccines for infectious diseases fail, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Forbes is tracking the private sector’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are 12 companies on the coronavirus frontlines.

How Businesses Are Fighting COVID-19

Armani: Billionaire Giorgio Armani’s luxury fashion brand converted all production at its Italian factories to manufacture single-use medical overallsand on March 26.

BioNTech: German biotech firm backed by billionaire twins Thomas and Andreas Struengmann is working to develop a coronavirus vaccine in partnership with Pfizer and Fosun Pharma, chaired by billionaire Guo Guangchang.

Carbon: California-based 3D printing unicorn backed by Russian tech investor Yuri Milner will soon be distributing testing swabs and face shields to hospitals in the Bay Area.

Carbyne: New York startup’s emergency response tool, backed by Peter Thiel’s VC fundusers , is being used by 911 responders in New Orleans to track patients by video screening callers.

CureVac: German firm, funded by billionaire Dietmar Hopp and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, received $87 million from the European Commission to scale up development of its coronavirus vaccineand .

DiaSorin: Italian biotech company owned by billionaire Gustavo Denegri obtained emergency authorization from the FDA for its new 60-minute testing kit for COVID-19.

Dyson: British billionaire James Dyson announced his vacuum cleaner and hand dryer firm would start designing and making 10,000 ventilators, with more to come.

Ford: Auto giant is working with 3M and GE’s healthcare unit to make respirators, ventilators and face shields at its manufacturing sites; Ford and GE Healthcare announced on March 30 that the companies would produce 50,000 ventilators by July 8 with plans to increase production to 30,000 a month.

Gojo Industries: The Ohio-based maker of Purell, owned by a billionaire family, is prioritizing delivery of its ubiquitous hand sanitizers to health workers and first responders on the frontlines.

Johnson & Johnson: The company’s pharma unit, Janssen, will start manufacturing its vaccine — developed with the Department of Health and Human Services — this month, with human trials set to begin by September and a public rollout hoped for early 2021. The company and the federal government are investing more than $1 billion in the vaccine effort.

Medline: Northfield, Illinois family-owned manufacturer is ramping up production to supply medical masks, biohazard bags, surgical clothing and disinfectants to hospitals across the United States.

Medtronic: Minnesota-based medical device maker publicly shared the design specifications for its basic ventilator model, with the goal of helping other companies quickly manufacture ventilators.