MRK vs XENE

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.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing therapeutics to treat patients with neurological disorders in Canada. Its clinical development pipeline includes XEN496, A Kv7 potassium channel modulator that is Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of KCNQ2 epilepsy encephalopathy; and XEN1101, A Kv7 potassium channel modulator, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. The company's product candidates also comprise NBI-921352, a selective Nav1.6 sodium channel inhibitor that is in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of epilepsy; and XEN007, A central nervous system-acting calcium channel modulator, which is in Phase II clinical trials. The company has a license and collaboration agreement with the Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. to develop treatments for epilepsy; and with Flexion Therapeutics, Inc. to develop FX301 (XEN402, a Nav1.7 inhibitor) for the treatment of post-operative pain. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Burnaby, Canada.