Merck will cease promoting its cardiac drug Zontivity and cut about 148 sales jobs as a result, a company spokeswoman said Monday.
While a notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry listed those jobs as being at Merck's Upper Gwynedd sales office, spokeswoman Lainie Keller said many of those affected are field-based sales employees who do not reside in Pennsylvania. The cuts are effective Sept. 12.
Earlier reports that the job cuts were related to a July announcement regarding layoffs at Merck's North Wales screening facility were incorrect, Keller said. She said the decision to halt Zontivity marketing was a business decision unrelated to the drug's safety or efficacy.
"It’s important to note that this action is separate and distinct from the organizational changes we are making within our discovery, pre-clinical and early development area in Merck Research Laboratories to enable earlier access to emerging external science and technology to augment our leading discovery and development capabilities," she said.
About 10 percent of the workforce involved in those areas will be cut in North Wales, Kenilworth and Rahway, New Jersey, as work shifts to new research labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the San Francisco Bay area in California. The company has not provided a breakdown of how many jobs would be lost, but said some employees would be moved to other sites.
Headquartered in Kenilworth, Merck employs more than 12,000 people in Montgomery County, most of them at its West Point vaccine manufacturing plant. Merck’s U.S. Human Health and Merck Research Laboratories are headquartered nearby, at what it refers to as its Upper Gwynedd site. North Wales, too, is in Upper Gwynedd, just outside the borough itself.
While a notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry listed those jobs as being at Merck's Upper Gwynedd sales office, spokeswoman Lainie Keller said many of those affected are field-based sales employees who do not reside in Pennsylvania. The cuts are effective Sept. 12.
Earlier reports that the job cuts were related to a July announcement regarding layoffs at Merck's North Wales screening facility were incorrect, Keller said. She said the decision to halt Zontivity marketing was a business decision unrelated to the drug's safety or efficacy.
"It’s important to note that this action is separate and distinct from the organizational changes we are making within our discovery, pre-clinical and early development area in Merck Research Laboratories to enable earlier access to emerging external science and technology to augment our leading discovery and development capabilities," she said.
About 10 percent of the workforce involved in those areas will be cut in North Wales, Kenilworth and Rahway, New Jersey, as work shifts to new research labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the San Francisco Bay area in California. The company has not provided a breakdown of how many jobs would be lost, but said some employees would be moved to other sites.
Headquartered in Kenilworth, Merck employs more than 12,000 people in Montgomery County, most of them at its West Point vaccine manufacturing plant. Merck’s U.S. Human Health and Merck Research Laboratories are headquartered nearby, at what it refers to as its Upper Gwynedd site. North Wales, too, is in Upper Gwynedd, just outside the borough itself.