Merck has hired Maria Rivas, M.D., as senior vice president, head of global medical affairs. Dr. Rivas joins Merck from MSD, where she held the position of senior vice president, head of medical affairs, overseeing 2,000 employees from 90 countries in therapeutic areas including oncology, immunology, biosimilars and neuroscience, amongst others. She was responsible for establishing a strong collaboration between Medical Affairs and the R&D organisation and enhancing the Medical Affairs contributions to the research and commercialisation strategy. Prior to MSD, Dr. Rivas was vice president and head of global medical affairs at AbbVie and vice president, global medical affairs, oncology, and vice president, general medicine and diagnostic imaging at Bayer.