Compare · LGND vs MRK
LGND vs MRK
Side-by-side comparison of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) and Merck & Company Inc. (MRK): market cap, price performance, sector, and recent activity on the wire.
Summary
- Both LGND and MRK operate in Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations (Health Care), so they compete in similar markets.
- MRK is the larger of the two at $385.99B, about 68.7x LGND ($5.62B).
- MRK has been more active in the news (17 items in the past 4 weeks vs 8 for LGND).
- MRK has more recent analyst coverage (25 ratings vs 11 for LGND).
- Company
- Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
- Merck & Company Inc.
- Price
- -
- -
- Market cap
- $5.62B
- $385.99B
- 1M return
- -
- -
- 1Y return
- -
- -
- Industry
- Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
- Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
- Exchange
- NASDAQ
- NYSE
- IPO
- News (4w)
- 8
- 17
- Recent ratings
- 11
- 25
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing or acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies to discover and develop medicines worldwide. The company's commercial programs include Kyprolis and Evomela, which are used to treat multiple myeloma; Veklury for the treatment of moderate or severe COVID-19; Teriparatide injection product for the treatment of osteoporosis; Nexterone, a captisol-enabled formulation of amiodarone; Zulresso, a captisol-enabled formulation of brexanolone for the treatment of PPD; Noxafil-IV, a captisol-enabled formulation of posaconazole for IV use; Duavee for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis; Aziyo portfolio of commercial pericardial repair and CanGaroo envelope extracellular matrix products; Exemptia for autoimmune diseases; Vivitra for breast cancer; Bryxta and Zybev for various indications; and Minnebro for the treatment of hypertension. The company's partners programs, which are in clinical development used for the treatment of cancer, seizure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, muscle wasting, liver disease, and kidney, and other diseases. In addition, the company is involved in the sale of Captisol materials. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in San Diego, 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.
Latest LGND
- Chief Financial Officer Espinoza Octavio exercised 31,641 shares at a strike of $56.91 and sold $9,241,229 worth of shares (31,641 units at $292.06) as part of a pre-agreed trading plan (SEC Form 4)
- Director Haas Jason exercised 6,138 shares at a strike of $51.56 and sold $2,090,062 worth of shares (7,138 units at $292.81), decreasing direct ownership by 20% to 3,981 units (SEC Form 4)
- Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Ligand Pharma
- Orchestra BioMed Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Highlights Recent Business Updates
- SEC Form 10-Q filed by Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
- Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated filed SEC Form 8-K: Results of Operations and Financial Condition, Financial Statements and Exhibits
- Ligand Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
- CLO & Secretary Reardon Andrew sold $1,444,951 worth of shares (5,000 units at $288.99) as part of a pre-agreed trading plan and exercised 5,000 shares at a strike of $52.27 (SEC Form 4)
- Ligand to Report Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results on August 6, 2026
- SEC Form S-8 filed by Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
Latest MRK
- Merck downgraded by RBC Capital Mkts with a new price target
- Merck upgraded by Morgan Stanley with a new price target
- Merck and Moderna Announce Phase 3 INTerpath-001 Trial of Intismeran Autogene Plus KEYTRUDA® Met Endpoints of Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) and Distant Metastasis-Free Survival (DMFS) in Patients With Completely Resected Stage IIB-IV Melanoma
- EVP, Access, Policy & Comms Guindo Chirfi sold $1,350,000 worth of shares (10,000 units at $135.00), decreasing direct ownership by 21% to 36,613 units (SEC Form 4)
- EVP, General Counsel Zachary Jennifer exercised 54,927 shares at a strike of $109.78 and sold $10,718,495 worth of shares (80,315 units at $133.46), decreasing direct ownership by 36% to 45,509 units (SEC Form 4)
- EVP&Pres, Merck Animal Heallth Deluca Richard R. sold $5,942,369 worth of shares (45,320 units at $131.12), decreasing direct ownership by 29% to 110,167 units (SEC Form 4)
- Merck upgraded by Daiwa Securities with a new price target
- EVP&Pres, Merck Animal Heallth Deluca Richard R. sold $788,773 worth of shares (6,050 units at $130.38), decreasing direct ownership by 4% to 155,487 units (SEC Form 4)
- EVP & Pres. MMD Maraldo David R. exercised 18,706 shares at a strike of $82.25 and sold $2,407,797 worth of shares (18,706 units at $128.72) (SEC Form 4)
- EVP,Chief Info&Digital Officer Williams David Michael exercised 52,847 shares at a strike of $74.49 and sold $6,805,145 worth of shares (52,847 units at $128.77), increasing direct ownership by 0.00% to 31,716 units (SEC Form 4)