MRK vs VACC

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.

Vaccitech plc

Vaccitech plc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery and development of novel T cell immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancers. The company's therapeutic programs include VTP-300, which is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection; VTP-200 that is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the treatment of human papilloma virus infection; VTP-850, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of prostate cancer; and VTP-600 that is in Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Its prophylactic programs include VTP-400, which is in preclinical stage for the prevention of herpes zoster or shingles; VTP-500 that has completed Phase 1 clinical trial for the prevention of Middle East respiratory syndrome; and Vaxzevria, a prophylactic vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 infection. The company was formerly known as Vaccitech Rx Limited and changed its name to Vaccitech plc in March 2021. Vaccitech plc was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Oxford, the United Kingdom.