Merck Serono: Update on Redeployment of Geneva Employees and the Company's Presence in Switzerland

EYSINS, Switzerland, May 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

• The job prospects for 77% of former Geneva-based employees have been resolved
• Merck Serono retains a substantial and strategic presence in Switzerland, with almost 1,000 employees, including over 800 in the Vaud canton

Merck Serono, a division of Merck, today provided an update on the redeployment of its former Geneva-based employees.

According to the latest available data, the company estimates that as of the end of April 2013 some 943 individuals, i.e. 77% of employees, have had their future employment status clarified:

• 300 employees have accepted the offer of a transfer to another Merck Serono site, 185 within Switzerland and 115 abroad;
• redeployment of 43 people has been achieved through the creation of seven start-up companies under the terms of the Entrepreneur Partnership Program;
• 80 employees have benefited from early retirement;
• the total number of former Merck Serono employees registered as unemployed with the regional employment offices of the Geneva and Vaud cantons and with job centers in the French departments of Ain and Haute Savoie was 280 at the end of April 2013;
• around 30 employees currently on maternity leave will remain under contract for a fixed period.
• therefore, Merck Serono assumes that an estimated 520 employees have found employment outside the company or are engaged in a personal project.

"We are very pleased to note that, one year after the announcement of the closure of the Geneva site, over three-quarters of our former staff have managed to make plans for their futures," said François Naef, Chairman of the Board of Merck Serono S.A. "First and foremost, we must congratulate our former employees on having succeeded in quickly finding positions. But we would also like to thank the various people in the local economic network who have been instrumental in helping us to implement various initiatives aimed at assisting their return to work. Thanks to the career management offices that have been acting on our behalf to assist employees, we are confident that those currently seeking employment will find a job in the coming months."

Merck Serono will close its Geneva site on June 28, 2013, and will hand over the property on that date to Campus Biotech Sàrl.

Merck Serono retains a substantial and strategic presence in Switzerland, with almost 1,000 employees, including over 800 in the Vaud canton, at the following sites:

• Aubonne (biotechnology manufacturing site)
• Coinsins (packaging site for biotechnology products)
• Corsier-sur-Vevey (biotechnology manufacturing site)
• Eysins (various functions, including the Biosimilars Unit)
• Zug (Swiss commercial operations)

The Aubonne site, which manufactures the company's leading biotechnology medicines, will celebrate its 30^th anniversary on June 7, 2013. A new building is currently under construction adjacent to the manufacturing site to accommodate, alongside their Aubonne colleagues, the employees who are currently based at Coinsins and Eysins.

About Merck Serono

Merck Serono is the biopharmaceutical division of Merck. 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 neurology, oncology, immuno-oncology and immunology.

About Merck

Merck is a leading pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company with total revenues of € 11.2 billion in 2012, a history that began in 1668, and a future shaped by approx. 38,000 employees in 66 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