Briefs

PHARMA LAYOFFS

Merck announced layoffs of about 12% of its workforce -6, 800 employees and 400 positions to be left vacant -to be complete by 2011 in response to serious revenue shortfall from falling sales, approval delays, and patent expirations. The global restructuring should result in savings of $3.8 billion to $ii.2 billion from 2008 to 2013, and comes on the heels of an earlier "restructuring" that laid off over 10,000. i|0% of the jobs lost will be in the U.S., and 25% will be among mid- and senior- leve I executives. Research site in Japan, Italy, and Seattle will be closed by the end of 2009, but the company has offered some members of its molecular profiling group in …