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Schaeffer's Market Blog: Merck & Co. Slashes Its Sales Force

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  Published in Health and Fitness on Tuesday, February 24th 2009 at 14:07 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-02-24 14:07:34 by Market Wire
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CINCINNATI--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--The slowing economy continues to take its toll on companies. The latest example comes from Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), which announced that it has laid off about 750 U.S. sales representatives so far this year as part of a previously announced cost-cutting program designed to offset sluggish sales growth. The company expects to have about 5,600 U.S. sales representatives following the employee terminations, implying the layoffs amounted to a 12% reduction in the U.S. sales force. The sales-force layoffs are part of the 7,200 positions company-wide that Merck announced in October it planned to eliminate by the end of 2011.

MRK aims to yield cumulative pretax savings of $3.8 billion to $4.2 billion through 2013.

This is the second major round of cost-cutting in Merck's U.S. sales force in less than a year. In May, Merck announced it would reduce its U.S. sales force by 1,200 positions.

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