Pharmaceutical giant Merck plans to cut approximately 6,000 jobs — around 8% of its global workforce — as part of a $3 billion cost-cutting initiative announced earlier this week.
While the company is presenting the move as a strategic reallocation of resources rather than a pure reduction in force, the layoffs are expected to impact employees across administrative, sales, and R&D functions.
The company has yet to confirm whether the workforce reductions will involve facility closures, according to BioSpace.
The announcement follows Merck’s second-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, during which CEO Rob Davis outlined the financial strategy behind the restructuring effort. The $3 billion in projected savings, Davis said, will be redirected toward research and development, including support for up to 20 new product launches.
Though Davis acknowledged the impact on existing roles, he emphasized that the initiative should be viewed as a rebalancing of priorities. Merck may even hire new talent in select areas as it shifts focus to higher-growth segments. However, the company has not provided specifics on how many new roles might be created.
Merck’s Q2 revenue came in at $15.8 billion, a 2% decline from the same period last year. The drop was largely driven by a sharp 55% year-over-year decline in sales of its HPV vaccine Gardasil, which generated $1.1 billion for the quarter. Meanwhile, blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda brought in nearly $8 billion, up 9% from the prior year.
The move places Merck among a growing list of pharmaceutical companies initiating job cuts as they recalibrate operations.
On the same day Merck’s layoffs came to light, Moderna also announced it would reduce its global workforce by 10%, bringing its employee count below 5,000.
