Drugmaker Merck, bouncing back from a $1.6 billion hit from the coronavirus pandemic in the second quarter, boosted its third-quarter profit by 55% and blew past Wall Street expectations. The strong result was due to sales slightly higher than a year ago, plus restrained spending.

The Kenilworth, New Jersey, company on Tuesday said it’s making progress on three efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic: two vaccines and an antiviral drug.

Merck entered the race to fight COVID-19 later than other top drugmakers, but is focusing on creating medicines that are easier to administer and based on proven technologies. For instance, the company and partner Ridgeback Bio have begun two large late-stage trials of an experimental treatment called molnupiravir that’s in capsule form, rather than injected, which would allow COVID patients who aren’t hospitalized to take the drug at home.