Join

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 $298.33B, about 62.8x LGND ($4.75B).
  • Over the past year, LGND is up 116.6% and MRK is up 52.5% - LGND leads by 64.1 points.
  • MRK has been more active in the news (26 items in the past 4 weeks vs 5 for LGND).
  • MRK has more recent analyst coverage (25 ratings vs 9 for LGND).
PerformanceLGND+116.58%MRK+52.45%
2025-06-09+0.00%2026-06-05
MetricLGNDMRK
Company
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
Merck & Company Inc.
Price
$237.54+0.65%
$120.88+0.51%
Market cap
$4.75B
$298.33B
1M return
+2.46%
+6.46%
1Y return
+116.58%
+52.45%
Industry
Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
Exchange
NASDAQ
NYSE
IPO
News (4w)
5
26
Recent ratings
9
25
LGND

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.

MRK

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

Latest MRK