Thousands of R&D employees are likely to be laid off by pharmaceutical giant Merck as part of the company's plan to achieve $2.5 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2015.
On 1 October, Merck announced its intention to lose about 8,500 employees. This came on top of cuts already announced and still pending, and is part of a broader effort by the company to streamline its R&D.
Merck expects to realize $1bn, or 40 percent, of the savings by the end of 2014. The company said that the planned reductions, coupled with those already under way, will result in a 20 percent cut to its global workforce of 81,000 employees.
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