ICPT vs MRK

Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics to treat progressive non-viral liver diseases in the United States, Europe, and Canada. Its lead products candidate is the Ocaliva, a farnesoid X receptor agonist used for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) in combination with ursodeoxycholic acid in adults. The company is also developing Ocaliva for various indications, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); and other product candidates in various stages of clinical and preclinical development. It has a license agreement with Aralez Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. to develop and commercialize bezafibrate in the United States. The company markets its products through an internal commercial organization, a contract sales organization, and third-party distributors. Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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.