Presented by Biovays

Merck (MRK) told investors at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare conference today that it opposes a government-based healthcare plan – what pharma wouldn’t oppose, right?

Anyway, what everyone really wants to know is when those axes will start swinging.

As we reported in March, the MRK/SGP (Schering-Plough) merger was supposed to result in a work-force reduction of about 15%, with most of the layoffs happening outside the U.S.

MRK has about 55,200 employees world-wide, with 28,000 in the U.S., and SGP has about 51,000 global employees, with just 15,000 in the U.S.

According to CNBC, MRK said today that 16,000 employees will be shown the door after the merger with a final company employee total of 90,000. The pink slips will be passed out to both MRK and SGP employees, but there was no further confirmation on which side would get the brunt or if the layoffs would be structured or all at once.

Investors don’t care about those details – just the axes in general, which always/usually means management is doing a good job of streamlining. Sad, but true…

MRK also said it is still on track to close the deal in 4Q09 and expects to keep the rights to Remicade despite the unresolved dispute with JNJ (Johnson & Johnson).

Oh the madness…

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