At the Health Trend Days Lucerne, MSD Will Explore How Personalized Medicine Can Improve Treatments

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20.03.2025 13:44 CET

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Lucerne, March 20, 2025 – At the 20th “Trendtage Gesundheit Luzern” (Health Trend Days Lucerne), leading biopharmaceutical company MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme AG), which has its Swiss headquarters in Lucerne, will explore how personalized medicine uses predictive approaches to tailor therapies to the individual needs of patients.

“Our ultimate goal with predictive approaches is to deliver the right drug to the right patient at the right time,” says Mark Schmid, Global Head of Precision Medicine New Products at MSD and a participant in this year’s pharmaceutical panel discussion.

The event, which will take place at the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center (KKL Luzern) on March 26 and 27, 2025, will examine the three-pronged Hippocratic approach of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment as part of an overarching topic: “Predictive medicine – the holy grail?” This question will be used as a springboard to examine the related ethical, legal and social concerns more closely and also to consider the use of artificial intelligence. MSD has been a committed partner of the Health Trend Days Lucerne since 2013 and actively supports innovation in healthcare. Bringing together around 600 leading decision-makers from the fields of medicine, science, business and politics, the Health Trend Days Lucerne is one of the most important platforms in the healthcare sector.

While predictive approaches identify the risk of developing specific diseases, personalized medicine uses this information to develop tailored treatment plans. This means that patients can be offered specific treatments based on their genetic profiles, biomarkers and other personal health data. Since treatment is tailored to the specific characteristics of each patient, therapies are more effective and side effects are minimized.

During the Health Trend Days Lucerne, the MSD development team will give presentations on personalized medicine and provide further information and interactive experiences to help visitors gain a deeper understanding of the topic.

  • Panel discussion: On March 27 at 11.35 a.m., Mark Schmid will speak about the future of personalized medicine and explain how predictive technologies are transforming treatments.

  • Virtual tour of production facilities: Visitors to the MSD stand will be able to take a fascinating virtual reality tour of the MSD production facility in Carlow, Ireland. Wearing VR glasses, they will experience first-hand the vaccine production process, as if they were physically on site.

  • Melanoma screening test: Visitors can test their knowledge of how to recognize signs of melanoma. Our MSD crew will help you to carry out a self-exam on the iPad.

  • HPV info flyers: Information about human papillomavirus (HPV), its transmission, health risks, recommended vaccinations and prevention strategies.

MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme in Switzerland

In Switzerland, MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme employs over 1,000 people at five sites in the cantons of Lucerne and Zurich. At the site in Zurich, in “The Circle”, MSD operates a global innovation and development hub. The main therapeutic areas of MSD are oncology, infectious diseases, and cardiometabolic diseases. We also have a broad portfolio of vaccines for the prevention of diseases in children, adolescents, and adults. At our site in Schachen, we manufacture medicines for global clinical trials and operate a forensic laboratory. In addition, MSD conducts almost 50 clinical trials annually in Switzerland alone. We take our responsibility to the local community seriously and have been involved for years in, among other things, the «Trendtage Gesundheit Luzern» and the «Alliance Health competence». In 2025, MSD received the «Top Employer Switzerland» award for the thirteenth time in a row.

For more information, please visit www.msd.ch, de.msd-animal-health.ch, www.msd-gesundheit.ch and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook und YouTube

You can find this and other press releases on our website in the protected area for media professionals: https://www.msd.ch/en/home/news/

Further information:

Media contact

Antonio Ligi, Head of Communications MSD Switzerland

media.switzerland@msd.com I Telephone: 076 203 44 96

Copyright © 2025 Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

CH-NON-02929, 03/2025

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