Campus Biotech S.A., Merck KGaA, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), University of Geneva (UNIGE) other, pharmaceuticals news
Campus Biotech said the sale of the former headquarters of Merck's Merck Serono S.A. biotech division in Geneva to the consortium behind the Campus Biotech initiative has been finalized. Hansjorg Wyss, the founder of Synthes Inc., which Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ, New Brunswick, N.J.) acquired last year, and Ernesto Bertarelli, the former CEO of Serono S.A, created Campus Biotech to make the offer and to head the site conversion of the complex. The Geneva site is being closed as part of a cost cutting program announced in February 2012 (see BioCentury, April 30 2012; June 25, 2012 & Dec. 10, 2012).
EPFL will receive a CHF 100 million ($104 million) donation from the Wyss Foundation to create, along with UNIGE, the Wyss Institute for Bio- and Neuro-Engineering, which will be located at the Geneva location. The Bertarelli Foundation will contribute its existing EPFL chairs, plus two additional chairs to the institute. The institute will focus on research areas that include neuroprosthetics and the regeneration of cardiovascular, muscular and neuromuscular tissue. EPFL, UNIGE and the institute will share space at the former Merck Serono headquarters along with other businesses to create a "unique scientific and entrepreneurial environment." ...