APLS vs MRK

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its lead product candidate is pegcetacoplan that is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) diseases; cold agglutinin disease; C3 glomerulopathy; and other glomerular diseases, such as IgA nephropathy, primary membranous nephropathy, and lupus nephritis. The company also develops APL-9, which is in single ascending dose Phase I randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trials for the prevention of immune system activation coincident with adeno-associated virus for intravenous administration, as well as is in Phase I/II clinical trial for acute respiratory distress syndrome. It has a collaboration and license agreement with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) to co-develop pegcetacoplan; and a research collaboration with Beam Therapeutics Inc. focused on the use of Beam's base editing technology to discover new treatments for complement-driven diseases. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.

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.