ARDS vs MRK

Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Aridis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery and development of targeted immunotherapy using fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to treat life-threatening infections. Its lead product candidate is AR-301, a fully human mAb of immunoglobulin 1 (IgG1) that is in Phase III pivotal trials for the treatment of lung infections resulting from S. aureus alphatoxin. The company is also developing AR-105, a fully human IgG1 mAb, which is in Phase II trials to target gram-negative bacteria P. aeruginosa; AR-101, a human IgM mAb, which is in Phase IIa clinical trials for the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP)and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by P. aeruginosa serotype O11; AR-401 that is in preclinical stage to treat infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii; AR-201, a fully human IgG1 mAb preclinical program for respiratory syncytial virus; and AR-501, an anti-infective therapy, which is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial to manage chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients and acute pneumonia in HAP and VAP patients. In addition, it is developing AR-712 and AR-701, a cocktail of two fully human immunoglobulin 1, or IgG1, mAbs, which is in Phase I/II clinical for the treatment of mild to moderate non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Aridis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California.

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.