"Given that pharmaceutical companies work competitively it was also somewhat of a surprise they took the same approach of targeting what has been termed the ‘spike protein’ of the SARS-CoV-2 virus."

Well, they work in collusion. Merck would be laughing at pfizer, moderna and J&J and promoting Ivermectin, not because they'd make money on it but because their competitors would suffer losses. But they didn't. Collusion seems obvious.