CRO Quintiles has committed to make at least 100 employment offers within the next three months to Merck Serono employees primarily working in global development and medical function in Geneva.

Merck Serono, a division of Merck in Darmstadt, Germany, made the announcement of its first employment initiative for workers affected by its restructuring in Switzerland.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Quintiles and we are very pleased that at least 100 of our Geneva-based employees will be offered the opportunity to work with this trusted partner," said François Naef, chairman of Merck Serono.

"We are always looking for highly qualified drug development experts with extensive biopharma industry experience, such as those we now have the opportunity to add from Merck Serono," said Paula Brown Stafford, president of clinical development, Quintiles. "This is another example of our ability to help biopharma companies transform to succeed in the New Health. By adding excellent employees from Merck Serono, we can put their talents to use on expanded clinical work with Merck Serono, and also make their expertise available to other biopharma companies. This is one way Quintiles is helping improve the efficiency, quality and speed of clinical development."

Quintiles will soon hold an information session for Merck Serono employees and will conduct job interviews at Merck Serono's facilities in Geneva starting in early July 2012. Quintiles' job offers will include positions primarily in fields such as clinical operations, biostatistics, clinical research and drug safety. Merck Serono and Quintiles will make a transition easy by applying a pragmatic and flexible approach to exit and hiring dates, taking into account employees' preferences as well as business requirements. The locations of those positions will be determined in a collaborative manner, including options in the Lake Geneva area, but also home-office solutions.

Merck Serono continues to explore further collaborations with strategic partners that may result in additional employment opportunities for its Geneva-based employees.