AVIR vs MRK

Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing antiviral therapeutics for patients suffering from viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, a novel antiviral agent that is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. The company also develops AT-752, an oral purine nucleoside prodrug product candidate, which has completed Phase Ia clinical trial for the treatment of dengue; AT-787, a co-formulated, oral, pan-genotypic fixed dose combination of AT-527 and AT-777 that is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C; and AT-889, an investigational, second-generation nucleoside pyrimidine prodrug and other compounds for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus. It has a Roche License Agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Genentech, Inc. for development and commercialization related to AT-527 outside of the United States. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Boston, 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.