Merck

New technologies are opening up mental health services to previously overbooked and underserved populations.

Mental Health Tech

Pelago, previously known as Quit Genius, is a digital cognitive behavioral therapy provider to help users quit smoking and vaping tobacco products. It later expanded its service offering to help users with addiction treatment for tobacco, alcohol, and opioid abuse. The app also helps users recognize negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts through varied content such as audio sessions, animated videos and interactive exercises. Pelago also offers approved medication, weekly coaching sessions, and connected devices such as a breathalyzer as part of its treatment.&nbsp;Pelago employs a value-based care model with 100% <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11615">fees-at-risk</a> based on clinical outcomes.&nbsp;As of March 2024, Pelago's platform covered over 3.4 million eligible lives. The company has demonstrated significant cost savings, with a claims-validated overall ROI of 3.2:1 for employers. Pelago's treatment approach has shown improved outcomes, with users 5x more likely to quit smoking in one year compared to other programs.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, Pelago’s customers included American Eagle Outfitters, Dollar Tree, AT&amp;T, The CheesecakeFactory, GE Appliances, and General Mills. As of August 2023, Pelago had more than 750,000 registered users on its platform.Pelago partners with employers and health plans to offer its substance use management services as an employee benefit. As of March 2024, the company worked with over 100 enterprise customers across various industries, including mining, manufacturing, technology, construction, education, and healthcare.

Leveraging personal data for custom-fit diagnosis and treatment

Precision Medicine

LifeMine Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical startup that offers a proprietary fungi-based drug discovery platform; Avatar-Rx. It uses high-throughput microbiology, data science, AI, genomic engineering, and automation technologies to discover genetically-encoded small molecules or GEMs in therapeutic areas, such as oncology and immune modulation. In other words, it mines fungi to create small-molecule drugs that target genetically validated drivers of cancer.Key customers and partnershipsThe company had a strategic R&amp;D partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to discover up to three novel small molecule targets in multiple disease areas. LifeMine was to receive an upfront payment of USD 70 million, as well as milestone-linked payments for the development and commercialization of each drug target. The firm was also eligible to receive royalties on drug sales from the collaboration that was commercialized by GSK.

Managing employee health-related benefits

Health Benefits Platforms

<div>
 
 Pelago, previously known as Quit Genius, provides personalized care for individuals seeking to reduce, quit, or manage tobacco, alcohol, and opioid use through its online platform. The company works with employers to provide its addiction treatment programs to employees while helping enterprises save on associated medical claims. Its platform&rsquo;s treatment program incorporates individual health, habits, genetics, and goals, going beyond traditional treatment programs. The company claims its platform has delivered a significant yearly reduction in medical claims for companies, thus providing a 3.0x return on investment to employers.
 
 
 
 
 In April 2024, the company launched a new program involving contingency management. The service aims to improve patient engagement, motivation, and health outcomes by rewarding positive behaviors. The contingency management program encourages positive behaviors such as participation in substance use disorder treatment and healthier substance use management or abstinence, leveraging a range of strategies such as prizes, privileges, or monetary rewards. Initially focusing on alcohol use disorder, Pelago planned to widen the program to other substance use disorders over time. The program includes the use of &quot;Pelatokens&quot; for achieving certain health goals and milestones, which can be converted into U.S. dollars.
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 
 As of April 2024, Pelago&rsquo;s customers included American Eagle Outfitters, Dollar Tree, AT&amp;T, The CheesecakeFactory, GE Appliances, and General Mills.
 
 
 In November 2022, Pelago partnered with Algith to become a member of the Alight Partner Network. Through the partnership, Pelago provided its smoking and vaping cessation programs to Alight members via the Alight Worklife platform.
 
 
 In August 2022, Pelago partnered with Rightway to join the company&rsquo;s partner ecosystem, RightwayHub. Through the partnership, Pelago was designated as a trusted network partner and would provide its digital-first clinic for tobacco, alcohol, or opioid addiction to Rightway members. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 In March 2024, Pelago raised USD 58 million in a Series C funding round led by Atomico, along with participation from other venture capital firms. The raised funds were set aside to further the company&rsquo;s product roadmap, support clinical research efforts, and expand its continuum of care. Post-fund raise, Atomico Partner Laura Connell joined Pelago&rsquo;s board.
 
</div>

Simplifying healthcare administration with intuitive tech tools

Hospital Management

Prognos Health is a leading healthcare data and analytics company that provides a cloud-based software platform and real-world data (RWD) marketplace. The company's platform, Prognos Factor, enables pharmaceutical companies, providers, and payers to access and analyze a vast repository of medical data, including over 30 billion lab records and 325 million de-identified patient records as of October 2022. This comprehensive dataset allows users to pinpoint insights, design patient cohorts, and map patient journeys with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
Prognos Factor leverages proprietary technology called healthLOGIC, a healthcare-specific software language that enables rapid querying of patient history without scanning or key lookups. This technology, combined with Prognos' expertise in harmonizing and integrating lab test results with medical and prescription claims data, provides clients with unparalleled clinical specificity and the ability to iterate quickly over the brand lifecycle.
In March 2021, Prognos launched its Prognos Marketplace, a diverse ecosystem of integrated, patient-centric data. The Marketplace allows life sciences companies to acquire healthcare data needed for various applications, such as cohort design, patient journey studies, and health outcomes analysis. Prognos continually adds new data sources to offer the most comprehensive and diverse healthcare data offering in the market.
In October 2022, Gradient AI, a leading enterprise software provider of artificial intelligence solutions in the insurance industry, acquired Prognos Health's analytics business underwriting unit. This acquisition enabled Gradient AI to expand its medical database capabilities by integrating Prognos Health's data, including lab data, into its SAIL medical underwriting solution.

Targeting complex diseases with complex molecules

Large-molecule Therapeutics

<div>
 
 Sutro Biopharma is a clinical-stage oncology company pioneering site-specific and novel-format antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Its key product candidate is luveltamab tazevibulin (luvelta), a folate receptor alpha (FolR&alpha;)-targeting ADC. Luvelta utilizes Sutro's proprietary cell-free XpressCF platform to enable site-specific conjugation and incorporation of both a cytotoxin and immunostimulatory component.
 
 
 
 
 Luvelta is currently being evaluated in multiple clinical trials for the treatment of ovarian, endometrial, lung, and rare pediatric cancers that express FolR&alpha;. In January 2024, compelling anti-leukemic activity was demonstrated with luvelta in relapsed/refractory pediatric patients with CBF/GLIS acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Part two of the REFR⍺ME-O1 registrational trial for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer is now enrolling patients. Additional trials are planned to begin in 2024, including a Phase 2 study in non-small cell lung cancer and a registration-enabling pediatric CBF/GLIS AML study (REFR⍺ME-P1).
 
 
 
 
 Sutro is utilizing its cell-free XpressCF and other proprietary technologies to build a pipeline of next-generation ADCs and biotherapeutics across multiple disease areas. The company has active collaborations with partners like Astellas, Merck, BMS, and Vaxcyte, generating over USD 854 million in payments through 2023.
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 
 In June 2022, Sutro entered into a worldwide strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Astellas focused on the discovery and development of novel immunostimulatory ADCs (iADCs) enabled by Sutro's technology. The deal included USD 90 million upfront, up to USD 422.5 million in potential milestones per product candidate, and royalties.
 
 
 
 
 Sutro is also collaborating with Merck on MK-1484, a biologic in clinical trials as a monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab for solid tumors. With Bristol Myers Squibb, Sutro is developing CC-99712, a BCMA-targeting ADC in trials for multiple myeloma.
 
</div>

Friends of Puerto Rico is a nonpartisan, non-profit social impact group that advocates for economic growth. and education through result-oriented entrepreneurial ventures centered on sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Prognos Health is a health tech company that is pushing the boundaries of healthcare analytics. The company’s platform, prognosFACTOR, has the power to query billions of lab and health records on more than 325 million de-identified patients to answer clinically-focused healthcare questions in minutes, not months. The platform enables the querying and purchasing of patient-centric, HIPAA-Compliant healthcare data from the Prognos Marketplace to address diverse applications, including cohort design, patient journey studies, health outcomes, and more. Customers include 25 of the top 30 pharmaceutical manufacturers and three of the top five payers.

Mamotest, the highway for oncologic solutions. THE HIGHWAY FOR/TO ONCOLOGIC SOLUTIONSAI Digital solution transforming care delivery by democratizing access to screening & diagnosis while providing an efficient path to treatment. Mamotest's purpuse is to drastically reduse breast cancer mortality. Mamotest is now operating in Spain, Argentina and Mexico. For more information visit:  Mamotest.com - linkedin.com/Mamotest

Qure AI is a healthtech startup that uses artificial intelligence assistance for medical imaging diagnostics. The company's mission is to make healthcare affordable and accessible using the power of artificial intelligence. They build deep learning solutions that aid physicians with routine diagnosis and treatment, allowing them to spend more time with patients. Qure AI was founded in 2016 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Seattle Genetics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing and commercializing monoclonal antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its lead product, SGN-35, is in the pivotal trial for patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. The company's other product candidates in various stages of clinical trials include dacetuzumab (SGN-40), a humanized anti-CD40 antibody; lintuzumab (SGN-33), a humanized anti-CD33 antibody; SGN-70, a humanized anti-CD70 antibody for the treatment of autoimmune diseases; SGN-75, which is in Phase I clinical trials for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma; ASG-5ME, a preclinical antibody-drug conjugate product candidate for the treatment of solid tumors; and SGN-19A, a preclinical antibody-drug conjugate product candidate for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. It has collaborations with Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.; Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.; Genentech; GlaxoSmithKline LLC; MedImmune, Inc.; Millennium; PSMA Development Company LLC; and Genmab A/S. The company also has an antibody-drug conjugates co-development agreement with Agensys, Inc.  The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington.

Zapata Computing is a quantum software company that offers computing solutions for industrial and commercial use. It provides hardware-agnostic solutions for simulation, optimization, and machine learning applications in chemistry, finance, logistics, pharmaceuticals, engineering, and materials. Zapata Computing is a spun out of Harvard University launched by a group of Harvard scientists, including Alán Aspuru-Guzik. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

A biopharmaceutical development company leading the science and manufacturing of antibody therapeutics. Utilizing some of the most advanced antibody science in the world, SAB is delivering the world’s first large-scale platform to create immunoglobulins. This natural production platform holds the potential for treatment of public health problems, rare conditions, long-term diseases and global pandemic threats.

Themis Bioscience is a start-up biotechnology company developing vaccines to prevent infectious diseases. The company’s development focus is primarily concentrated on emerging and specialist indications, advancing promising vaccines from preclinical to late-stage clinical development phases. We aim to exploit the increasing licensing and acquisition trend to generate value by developing and partnering our technology programs and vaccine candidates. It is our mission to establish Themis as a first class biotech development boutique and to become a preferred licensing partner for leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Mesentech is a company focused on treating diseases and medical conditions that relate to bone. They are generating a series of products, from different, but complementary approaches that will effectively address currently difficult to treat conditions. Bone can be one of the most difficult organs to access and treat with medicines. It’s hard surface and low porosity presents challenges in adequately getting drugs to either the bone surface or to its interior. Treatment often requires administering high doses of a drug over extended periods. Not only is achievement of efficacy compromised, but also side- effects may be more prevalent and can limit treatment effectiveness. Mesentech’s lead technology is a proprietary bone targeting system that can effectively deliver small-molecule and biological drugs to the surface or to the interior of bone. Pre-clinical in-vivo models have confirmed the utility of this technology.

Clinithink, a London, UK-based healthcare software company. Led by CEO Chris Tackaberry, Clinithink has developed cloud-based text processing capability that can be used to support data analytics, coding and decision support in healthcare applications. Its patent-pending Clinical Language Indexing software (CLiX) uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to construct coded output from physicians’ notes using industry data standards (ICD-9, ICD-10, and SNOMED CT).

Kytopen is a developer of a cell therapy platform designed for non-viral delivery of molecules into hard-to-transfect immune cells. The company's technology combines microfluidics and automation to make non-viral delivery of molecules easier, faster and cheaper through an automated cell engineering platform, enabling researchers to find new discoveries in biology that will lead to cost effective cell and gene therapies.

Sutro Biopharma is a clinical stage drug discovery, development, and manufacturing company. It is mainly engaged in the development of biopharmaceutical products. The company manufactures next-generation protein therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disorders through its proprietary integrated cell-free protein synthesis platform, XpressCF. Products offered by the company include STRO-001 for patients with multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and STRO-002 for the treatment of ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Pelago, formerly Quit Genius, is the world’s leading virtual clinic for substance use management. We are transforming substance use support—from prevention to treatment—delivering education, management skills, and opportunities for positive change to members struggling with substance use, most commonly tobacco, alcohol, or opioids. Our solution gives employers the means to offer on-demand, personalized support to workers seeking to live healthier lives. Pelago’s cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs deliver convenient, accessible, and effective support that seamlessly integrates with health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, and wellness platforms. To date, Pelago has helped more than 750,000 members manage their substance use and improve their lives.

LifeMine Therapeutics combines genomics with AI and synthetic biology to discover and develop a pipeline of novel medicines. LifeMine’s Avatar-Rx platform integrates high-throughput microbiology, data science and machine learning, genome engineering, and automation technologies to search the fungal biosphere for novel GEMs having a predetermined target and biological function. The platform integrates chemoinformatic-assisted drug optimization and state-of-the-art chemical synthesis with biotransformation to advance new product candidates into development. Founded by Gregory Verdine, PhD, Rick Klausner, MD, and WeiQing Zhou, MBA. LifeMine Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Serimmune is a company that studies immunity to find out how environmental factors affect health and disease. Its universal serology platform utilizes bacterial display peptide library technology and sequencing to broadly profile antibody repertoires and identify antigens and epitopes associated with many diseases all in a single assay.

Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics is a comprehensive high-tech design company dedicated to accelerating the development of bio-medicine and significantly reducing manufacturing costs. Their core strengths are molecular design, process design, drug product design and manufacturing plant design.

Just Evotec Biologics was founded in 2014 and acquired by Evotec in 2019. The company has an intense focus on the design of innovative and integrated technologies to accelerate the development of biotherapeutics and reduce their manufacturing cost. Core strengths include antibody discovery, molecular design, process and product design and manufacturing plant design.

GenomeDx discovers, develops, and commercializes genomic-based laboratory tests for the personalized medicine revolution in cancer care. In partnership with physicians and scientists from leading academic medicine institutions, our mission is to bring cost-effective and high-resolution genomics for routine clinical use in cancer medicine.

NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a privately-held drug discovery company committed to identifying transformational medicines that dramatically improve human health. Based on emerging human clinical and genetic observations, the company has devised several innovative experimental approaches to discover new therapies for the treatment of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. The company's current focus is on the gastrointestinal endocrine system, with an aim to identify novel factors implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and the apparent resolution of this grievous disease in patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgery.

eASIC, a fabless semiconductor company, manufactures eASIC platforms that reduce the cost of ownership and time to production of customized silicon devices. It develops Nextreme family of devices that reduce development cost and turn-around times compared to standard cell ASICs, while reducing power consumption and unit cost for designs, Nextreme-3, a fourth generation eASIC platform, and Nextreme-2, a third generation eASIC platform.  eASIC also provides easicopy ASIC that provides OEMs with a path from Nextreme-3, Nextreme-2, or Nextreme devices to a cell-based easicopy ASIC, which thereby helps OEMs reduce device cost and power consumption further, or increase performance, and eZ-IP alliance program to bring a wealth of verified eASIC-ready IP cores to help customers get to market faster. Its products are used in various applications that span from wireless infrastructure to consumer handheld devices.  eASIC serves customers worldwide. Zvi Or-Bach founded eASIC in 1999, with its headquarters in Santa Clara in California with additional offices worldwide.

Vaximm is  focused on developing active immunotherapies (vaccines) for patients suffering from cancer. Their initial product candidate VXM01 is targeting the tumor vasculature, which is essential for tumors to grow beyond microscopic size. Vaximm has shown impressive anti-tumor activity in various animal studies and will enter first human clinical trials in 2011.

Alnylam is the translation of RNA interference (RNAi) into a whole new class of innovative medicines with the potential to transform the lives of people afflicted with rare genetic, cardio-metabolic, hepatic infectious, and central nervous system (CNS)/ocular diseases. Based on Nobel Prize-winning science, RNAi therapeutics represent a powerful, clinically validated approach for the treatment of a wide range of severe and debilitating diseases.

Merck is a biopharmaceutical company that offers medicines and vaccines for various diseases. The company is driven by a mission to discover, develop, and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives.

<div> Merck &amp; Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the US and Canada, is a leading global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. With a history dating back to 1668, Merck has grown into one of the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1917 after being established as an independent American company following World War I. Merck's product portfolio spans several therapeutic areas: <ul> <li> Oncology: Keytruda (pembrolizumab), a blockbuster cancer immunotherapy </li> <li> Vaccines: Gardasil/Gardasil 9 (HPV vaccine), MMR II (measles, mumps, rubella vaccine) </li> <li> Hospital acute care: Bridion (sugammadex), Prevymis (letermovir) </li> <li> Cardiovascular: Adempas (riociguat), Verquvo (vericiguat) </li> <li> Diabetes: Januvia (sitagliptin), Janumet (sitagliptin/metformin) </li> <li> Animal Health: Bravecto (fluralaner) for companion animals, various livestock products </li> </ul> The company reported strong financial results for 2023, with full-year revenue of USD 60.1 billion, a 1% increase from 2022. Keytruda remained Merck's top-selling product, generating USD 25 billion in sales for 2023, a 19% increase year-over-year. Gardasil/Gardasil 9 also saw significant growth, with sales reaching USD 8.9 billion, a 29% increase from the previous year. Merck's animal health division contributed USD 5.6 billion to the company's 2023 revenue. For 2024, Merck expects revenue between USD 62.7 billion and USD 64.2 billion, reflecting continued growth across its portfolio. </div>

Merck & Co

Merck Closes Exclusive Global License Agreement for LM-299, An Investigational Anti-PD-1/VEGF Bispecific Antibody

Companies that develop engineered proteins that can target specific proteins or cells in the body

Companies that develop large molecules that can be used to target specific RNA molecules in the body, either to silence or replace them

Companies that develop large molecules that combine the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies with the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy drugs

Companies that develop large molecules that can be used to replace or supplement deficient or malfunctioning proteins in the body

Companies specializing in peptide-based treatments leverage short amino acid chains, known as peptides, to target and modulate various biological processes for therapeutic applications

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Personalis, a company that provides cancer testing solutions, has secured a USD 50 million investment from Merck. With this deal, Merck will obtain around 14 million shares of Personalis' common stock at a rate of USD 3.56 per share, giving them a 16.5% ownership stake.
 Furthermore, Personalis has expanded its partnership with Moderna for cancer therapy development using the ImmunoID NeXT Platform. This extension permits Moderna to continue leveraging Personalis’ ImmunoID NeXT Platform and technology for V940/mRNA-4157, a new individualized neoantigen therapy that Merck and Moderna are collaboratively developing.
</div>

Merck & Co

Featured Industries

EDGE Insights

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless