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Merkel Cell Carcinoma: one US-listed biotech with a clinical-stage programme

OncologyUncontestedData as of 2026-09-04

Competitors1in the clinic
Median market cap$1.3Buniverse median $1.20B
Allocated capital$321M$1.3B competing
Phase 3 or filed00 mid, 1 early
Pure plays0this indication only
Capital rank234/299crowding rank 237

Merkel Cell Carcinoma is uncontested. Replimune Group (REPL) is the only US-listed developer in the $100M to $20B band running a clinical programme here, with RP1, intra-tumoral, oncolytic virus in phase 1.

There is no public comparable to price it against. REPL spreads its $1.3B market cap across 4 indications, so $321M of it is allocated here.

Nothing here has reached Phase 3: 0 programmes in mid stage and 1 in early stage, so the field is still several years from a first approval.

$321M of allocated capital sits in Merkel Cell Carcinoma, ranking it 234th of 299 indications by the money committed to it.

Companies developing drugs for Merkel Cell Carcinoma 1

TickerCompanyLead assetPhaseTrialsMarket capPure playIndicationsNext catalyst
REPLReplimune GroupRP1, intra-tumoral, oncolytic virusPhase 11$1.3BNo4 31 Dec 2030

Sorted by phase, then by market capitalisation. Ticker links open the company profile.

Why Merkel Cell Carcinoma counts as uncontested

Uncontested. One US-listed developer in the size band is running a clinical programme here, so there is no public comparable to price it against.

The map splits indications on two folds: six or more competitors counts as crowded, and a median company above $1.20B counts as richly priced. Merkel Cell Carcinoma has one competitor and a median of $1.3B.

Oncology

Oncology holds $187B of the map's capital, 27.8% of the total, spread across 119 indications and 103 companies. 34 of those indications have more than one company competing.

See every Oncology indication on the map

Related indications in Oncology

High-Grade Glioma1 company · $299M · median $897MUncontestedLow and Intermediate-1 Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome1 company · $299M · median $897MUncontestedMetastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer1 company · $289M · median $1.4BUncontestedAdvanced Colorectal Carcinoma1 company · $289M · median $1.4BUncontestedEGFR Mutation-positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer1 company · $289M · median $1.4BUncontestedChoroidal Melanoma1 company · $382M · median $764MUncontestedRecurrent Acute Myeloid Leukemia1 company · $243M · median $970MUncontestedAdvanced Endometrial Cancer1 company · $410M · median $2.5BUncontested

Merkel Cell Carcinoma pipeline questions

Which biotech companies are developing drugs for Merkel Cell Carcinoma?

Replimune Group (REPL, RP1, intra-tumoral, oncolytic virus, Phase 1). Those are the 1 US-listed developer in the $100M to $20B market cap band with a clinical-stage programme in Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

How advanced is the Merkel Cell Carcinoma pipeline?

Of the 1 clinical-stage programme in Merkel Cell Carcinoma, 0 are in Phase 3 or filed, 0 are in mid-stage development and 1 is in early-stage development.

Is anyone else developing a drug for Merkel Cell Carcinoma?

No. REPL is the only US-listed company in the $100M to $20B market cap band with a clinical-stage programme in Merkel Cell Carcinoma, which is why the indication is classified as uncontested.

How this page is built

  • Universe is US-listed drug developers with a $100M to $20B market capitalisation, identified by SEC SIC code 2833, 2834 or 2836 or by a pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry classification, less a reviewed exclusion list of contract research organisations, device and diagnostics makers and diversified generics manufacturers.
  • An asset attributed to three or more different companies is treated as shared standard of care rather than any one company’s programme and excluded. Pembrolizumab alone appears under 21 tickers in raw trial data.
  • A programme counts only where at least one industry-sponsored trial supports it, so investigator-initiated academic studies of third-party drugs are excluded.

Allocated capital divides each company’s market capitalisation evenly across the indications it is running clinical programmes in, so every dollar of the universe is counted exactly once. Total market capitalisation competing counts a company in each of its indications and therefore sums to more than the universe.

Third-party market size estimates are not used anywhere on this page. Approved incumbents are excluded from competitor counts, and companies above $20B are outside the universe by construction.

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