Merck Serono Arrives at EPFL Innovation Park

On November 22, Merck Serono officially launched the Merck Institute for Pharmacometrics at EPFL Innovation Park where it joins other multinational companies like Logitech, Cisco, PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences. The pharmaceutical company plans to develop collaborations with EPFL laboratories in the area of quantitative analysis, studying the interrelations between patients, the diseases from which they suffer, and drug development. For the research it will use models from pharmacology, physiology, and disease progression over time, as well as making use of simulation tools.

The areas in which collaborations can be productive are vast: cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, immunotherapies, bioengineering, etc. Contacts have already been established with research groups in the departments of basic sciences and life sciences, including ISREC (Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research) – and other groups are in the process of joining.

The industry benefits from proximity to laboratories where the technologies of tomorrow are emerging. As Susan Herbert, Head of Business Development and Strategy, noted at the opening of the research center, “if development is done in-house, new ideas often come from outside. So the proximity of laboratories to the company opens fruitful discussions that help build new ideas.”