UPDATED: Merck outlines new staff cuts at NJ research campus

Merck's ($MRK) new R&D chief Roger Perlmutter has been low-key about his plans to reorganize the $8 billion research operation, suggesting that he plans to limit himself to some nips and tucks in terms of streamlining--a strategy that evidently includes a recent decision to strip away one layer of management in research. Now In the Pipeline blogger Derek Lowe has spied signs of another tailoring move, noting that Merck has notified officials in New Jersey that it is terminating 113 positions in Kenilworth, where Schering-Plough's former headquarters was turned into an R&D campus back in 2011. A spokesperson for Merck told the Star-Ledger later in the day that it is following through on a plan announced earlier to close a manufacturing facility. Brief | Story