Monday, August 1, 2011

There's always an outlier

In the recent In the Pipeline thread about more impending Merck layoffs, someone expressing a minority opinion:
Merck is too big. Size is holding the company back. I am a chemist at Merck and I'm excited for a company post-cuts. I think life will be easier with fewer people. It's sad, very sad, but necessary. I believe Ken Frazier will stick to a heavy investment in R&D. Heavy investment in R&D brought us Januvia, Singulair took a zillion years to discover/develop, we did good in penicillin and that was all from the lab. Ken says science is "in our DNA" and I think it's a genuine statement. I believe a smaller, R&D-focussed Merck will kick ass.
I note this with the caveat that it might have been a moderately effective troll. 

5 comments:

  1. Seems like this guy is bending backwards to brown nose someone...that is fine. But, his position that lean Merck at the expense of experienced one will lead to easier life is sad. He will not realize that...until his job is on the line. All of us want little empathy for our fellow chemist, who lost his job for reasons other than chemistry in this troubling economic times. Not like, this chest thumping moron.

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  2. I think it's a clever troll. Kudos, troll!

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  3. Either a troll or a mega-tool extraordinaire.

    Maybe it's just me, but something seems ominous about this press release: "Realities of our environment dictate the need to operate more flexibly and nimbly, from a lower cost base," said Frazier. While last week's announcement did not include specific information on R&D, Frazier indicated that further cuts in the lab are under consideration. "We are not in a business-as-usual mode when it comes to managing our investments in R&D. We continue to improve the decision process by which we commit to or discontinue projects."

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  4. @ 2:39pm
    Sounds like Merck may be transitioning to open innovation R&D model... Academics will love it, they can scramble for open innovation funding to produce even more PhDs for this new 'flexible, nimble, low cost base' world. Now all Merck needs is a chest thumping politican telling all the children to go be chemists!

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  5. "discontinue projects"

    I went to dictionary.com, and the list of synonyms for discontinue: cease, give up, lay off, quit, stop.

    Just sayin'. Call it like it is.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20