Merck Serono
EMD Serono
Type	Stock corporation
Founded	2007
Location	Geneva, Switzerland (Headquarters)
Key people
Industry Industry Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...	Biotechnology Biotechnology Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...  / Pharmaceutical
Key Products Product (business) In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...	Rebif, Gonal-f, Luveris, Ovidrel/Ovitrelle, Serostim, Saizen, Zorbtive and Raptiva, Erbitux, Multibionta
Revenue Revenue In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....	USD ~5 billion (projected)
Website Website A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...	http://www.merckserono.com/

Merck Serono (EMD Serono in the United States and Canada) is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In September 2006, Merck KGaA

Merck KGaA

Merck KGaA is a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. Merck, also known as “German Merck” and “Merck Darmstadt”, was founded in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1668, making it the world's oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company. The company was privately owned until going public in 1995...

 announced its intent to purchase the majority of Serono

Serono

Serono is a biotechnology company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company was founded as the Serono Pharmacolodgical Institute by Cesare Serono in 1906 in Italy. A key step in its development was the discovery of a method of extracting urinary gonadotropins by Dr Piero Donini allowing...

 shares from Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli is a Swiss-Italian billionaire and entrepreneur.Together with his extended family, Bertarelli was ranked 81st in the 2011 annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people compiled and published by Forbes magazine, The family's wealth was estimated at US$10.0...

 and the Bertarelli family. The Merck-Serono merger was announced on September 21, 2006. Merck KGaA and Serono operated as distinct entities until at least January 2007. As of January 5, 2007, Merck held the majority shares of Serono. The new company is called Merck Serono International S.A.

Merck KGaA is a completely separate company from the US company Merck & Co.

Merck & Co.

Merck & Co., Inc. , also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, an unincorporated area in Readington Township...

. Therefore, in the US & Canada, Merck Serono is known as EMD Serono, Inc.

Drugs they market include Erbitux, UFT

Tegafur-uracil

Tegafur-uracil is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of cancer, primarily bowel cancer. It is also called UFT or UFUR.-Development and regulation:...

, Rebif, Novantrone, Gonal, Ovidrel/Ovitrelle, Zorbtive, Luveris, Saizen

Saizen

Saizen is a commercial preparation of synthetic somatropin . Manufactured by Merck Serono, Saizen is produced by recombinant DNA technology from a mammalian cell line that was modified by the addition of the human GH gene, resulting in an identical 191-amino acid sequence and structure.-Usage: ...

, Serostim

Serostim

Serostim is Serono's brand name prescription drug form of synthetic growth hormone, marketed for AIDS wasting.In December 2007, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts settled a class-action lawsuit that involved Merck Serono and the drug Serostim...

, Glucophage, Concor

Concor

Concor is a South African construction company. It is active throughout southern Africa, involved in mining, civil engineering, building and road projects. It was listed on the JSE Securities Exchange and, for the year ended June 2005, Concor's last year as a listed company, had an annual turnover...

, Euthyrox and Raptiva.

Collaborative Research

In addition to internal research and development activities Merck Serono is also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in the area of non-clinical

Pre-clinical development

In drug development, pre-clinical development is a stage of research that begins before clinical trials can begin, and during which important feasibility, iterative testing and drug safety data is collected....

 safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox. The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative

Innovative Medicines Initiative

The Innovative Medicines Initiative is a European initiative to improve the competitive situation of the European Union in the field of pharmaceutical research...

 of EFPIA and the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

.