Belén Garijo has been named as chief operating officer, effective 1 September, while Annalisa Jenkins starts as global head of drug development & medical on 5 September.
In their newly created positions, Garijo and Jenkins will be based in Geneva and report to Stefan Oschmann, member of Merck’s executive board and head of Merck Serono.
Garijo joins the company from Sanofi, where she was senior vice president, Global Operations Region Europe. Jenkins comes from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she was senior vice president, Global Medical.
Garijo will take responsibility for worldwide commercial operations and marketing and define the future organisational structure of Merck Serono.
A new organisational structure for r&d will be effective when Jenkins joins Merck Serono. Two dedicated groups, focusing on different stages of pharmaceutical innovation (pre- and post-proof of concept), will be created as a first step in redesigning Merck Serono’s r&d model:
Annalisa Jenkins
The Global Research & Early Development Group, headed by Bernhard Kirschbaum, will include discovery, research and early clinical development, through to proof of concept;
The Global Drug Development and Medical Group, headed by Jenkins, will focus on full clinical development, medical life-cycle management activities and medical, including regulatory and safety functions.
Merck says a key priority for Kirschbaum and Jenkins will be defining the structures and processes of the new r&d organisation and simplifying the organisational structure, governance and decision-making processes.
