Merck Fires Research Heads

Roger M. Perlmutter, the newly appointed head of Merck Research Laboratories (MRL), has unleashed what one commentator in the pharma blogosphere calls a management-level bloodbath, eliminating the heads of all of the company’s therapeutic research teams and putting in place a corps of research managers with functional responsibility across all research endeavors. “MRL’s organizational structure has been altered to simplify governance so that Merck can advance therapeutic and vaccine candidates more efficiently and focus resources on its most promising programs,” Perlmutter says. “The new design has been established to ensure that MRL leaders have the authority to take appropriate actions to facilitate rapid pipeline progress.” A spokeswoman for the company confirms published reports that a reduction in the research workforce is planned. Some cuts are coming in the near term; others will take effect over time. Merck has suffered disappointments in the clinic recently, with side effects emerging in tests of the heart drug Tredaptive earlier this year. The firm has had better news with lambrolizumab, an antibody therapy for advanced melanoma that has returned encouraging Phase I results.