MDNA vs MRK

Medicenna Therapeutics Corp.

Medicenna Therapeutics Corp., a clinical stage immunotherapy company, engages in the development and commercialization of Superkines and empowered Superkines for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Its lead product is MDNA55, an interleukin- 4 (IL-4) EC that has completed Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM), as well as preclinical and clinical development stages for the treatment of other brain and non-brain tumors. The company also develops MDNA55, which has completed Phase 2b clinical trial to treat rGBM; MDNA109, an enhanced version of IL-2 to activate and proliferate the immune cells needed to fight cancer; MDNA209, an IL-2 antagonist for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and graft versus host disease (GvHD); MDNA413, a dual IL-4/IL-13 antagonist to treat solid tumors; and MDNA132, an IL-13 Superkine to chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) platform. In addition, it provides BiSKITs platform to develop designer Superkines by fusing them to other proteins, antibodies, or naked IL-2, IL-4, and IL-13 Superkines. Medicenna Therapeutics Corp. is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Merck & Company Inc.

Merck & Co., Inc. operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Animal Health segments. The Pharmaceutical segment offers human health pharmaceutical products in the areas of oncology, hospital acute care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular, diabetes, and women's health, as well as vaccine products. The Animal Health segment provides discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets a range of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions and services, as well as a suite of digitally connected identification, traceability, and monitoring products. The company has collaborations with AstraZeneca PLC; Bayer AG; Eisai Co., Ltd.; and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It serves drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, and government agencies; managed health care providers, such as health maintenance organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, and other institutions; and physicians and physician distributors, veterinarians, and animal producers. The company has collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to co-develop and co-commercialize long-acting investigational treatment combinations of Lenacapavir and Islatravir in HIV; Amathus Therapeutics to develop treatments for neurodegenerative diseases; and Linnaeus Therapeutics, Inc. to evaluate LNS8801 in combination with KEYTRUDA for patients with advanced cancer. It also has a collaboration with Biomed X Gmbh for building on ongoing research projects in the fields of oncology (DNA damage response and RNA splicing) and autoimmunity (intestinal epithelial barrier in autoimmune diseases); and a collaboration agreement with NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. to focus primarily on the development of novel medicines for unmet patient needs in retinal and CVM diseases, including heart failure. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey.