Merck Serono Organizes a Job Fair to Help with Redeployment for Geneva Employees

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

• More than 30 companies operating in French-speaking Switzerland will attend
• Job fair is organized in collaboration with BioAlps, GEM and AIGSV

Merck Serono is organizing a job fair for Geneva-based employees on September 11 and 12, 2012. More than 30 companies operating in French-speaking Switzerland will be attending. The job fair is organized in collaboration with BioAlps, the Multinational Companies Group (GEM) and the Geneva Life Sciences Industrial Association (AIGSV), under the aegis of the Geneva Council of State. The aim of the job fair is to bring together those companies with positions to offer in French-speaking Switzerland directly with Merck Serono staff who are seeking a job following the announcement of the closure of Merck Serono's Geneva site.

"Bringing our employees together with companies that have jobs to offer in French-speaking Switzerland is one of our approaches to facilitate the redeployment of staff from our Geneva site," said Dietmar Eidens, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, for Merck Serono. "It is our hope that the two-day job fair will be an opportunity for fruitful contacts and will subsequently enable many of our employees to find a job."

As well as putting its employees in touch with other companies through the job fair and through its intranet site, Merck Serono is pursuing other initiatives with the aim of finding redeployment opportunities for its employees, including:

• Discussions with partners in business and authorities
• The Entrepreneurial Partnership Program (EPP) to assist in the setting up of companies by employees, including the provision of a 30-million euro fund
• Participation in the task force set up by the Geneva Council of State.

Some initial results of these various initiatives have already been announced, in particular:

• The Quintiles Company, one of Merck Serono's partners in the field of bio-pharmaceutical services, has undertaken to make at least 100 job offers to Merck Serono Geneva staff; many job interviews have taken place since mid-July
• Two companies, Prexton Therapeutics and Quartz Bio, have been established as part of the EPP program; several other projects are at an advanced stage of evaluation, and employees can still continue to submit projects for creation of new companies up to September 30, 2012.

About Merck Serono

Merck Serono is the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA. With headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, Merck Serono offers leading brands in 150 countries to help patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis, infertility, endocrine and metabolic disorders as well as cardiovascular diseases. In the United States and Canada, EMD Serono operates as a separately incorporated subsidiary of Merck Serono.

Merck Serono discovers, develops, manufactures and markets prescription medicines of both chemical and biological origin in specialist indications. We have an enduring commitment to deliver novel therapies in our core focus areas of neurodegenerative diseases, oncology and rheumatology.

About Merck

Merck is a global pharmaceutical and chemical company with total revenues of €10.3 billion in 2011, a history that began in 1668, and a future shaped by more than 40,000 employees in 67 countries. Its success is characterized by innovations from entrepreneurial employees. Merck's operating activities come under the umbrella of Merck KGaA, in which the Merck family holds an approximately 70% interest and free shareholders own the remaining approximately 30%. In 1917 the U.S. subsidiary Merck & Co. was expropriated and has been an independent company ever since.

For more information, please visit http://www.merckserono.com or http://www.merckgroup.com. Media relations Tel: +41-22-414-36-00.