Merck Serono France to close its r&d site at Chilly-Mazarin

Published: 11-Jul-2008

The French arm of Merck Serono has decided to close its r&d site at Chilly-Mazarin, Essonne, because it has failed to find a buyer.


The French arm of Merck Serono has decided to close its r&d site at Chilly-Mazarin, Essonne, because it has failed to find a buyer.

The news came less than 24 hours after Novartis France announced the closure of two of its French sites.

In November Merck Serono had announced it wanted to sell the site, which specialises in diabetes, following the decision by Elmar Schnee, ceo of Merck Serono, to recentre the group's research on oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, fertility and endocrinology.

According to Merck Serono France CEO Pierre-Henry Longeray, the "group of experts" charged with selling the site contacted around 100 companies in the first six months of 2008 without result. The site currently employs 97 people.

He said that Merck Serono would support various business schemes put forward by some of the site employees. Some of these projects involve continuing the development of candidate drugs to treat diabetes. Among these projects there is an antidiabetic molecule "of a new therapeutic class" for which Phase II data are available, and there are also two preclinical projects.

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