MCRB vs MRK

Seres Therapeutics Inc.

Seres Therapeutics, Inc., a microbiome therapeutics platform company, engages in developing bacterial consortia that are designed to functionally interact with host cells and tissues to treat disease. The company's lead product candidate is the SER-109, an oral microbiome therapeutic candidate that has completed Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of clostridium difficile infection (CDI). It is also developing SER-287 that is in Phase IIb clinical trial to treat ulcerative colitis; SER-401, which is in Phase Ib clinical trial for use with checkpoint inhibitors in patients with metastatic melanoma; and SER-301 that is in the Phase 1b clinical trial for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. In addition, the company engages in the development of SER-262 to treat an initial recurrence of CDI; and SER-155, a cultivated bacteria microbiome drug designed to prevent mortality due to gastrointestinal infections, bacteremia, and graft versus host diseases in immunocompromised patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and solid organ transplants. It has license and collaboration agreements with Nestec Ltd. and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The company was formerly known as Seres Health, Inc. and changed its name to Seres Therapeutics, Inc. in May 2015. Seres Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, 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.