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JOHNSON 20 minutes ago
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Wednesday it will slash 7,200 jobs as part of a new restructuring program that comes as its third-quarter profit plunged 28 percent, due to a hefty restructuring charge and flat sales.
The maker of allergy and asthma treatment Singulair and cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil said it will cut nearly 13 percent of its work force, including many executives, to lower overhead and become more competitive, in its second major restructuring in less than three years.
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. said that because of a $612 million charge for restructuring, net income for its third quarter amounts to $1.09 billion, or 51 cents per share. That's down from $1.53 billion, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.
The $612 million charge, after taxes, includes a $720 million pretax charge for the new restructuring program, plus $127 million in costs related to the prior restructuring program, announced in December 2005.
Excluding the restructuring charge, which amounts to 29 cents per share, Merck would have posted earnings of 80 cents, 1 cent better than Wall Street was expecting

Asthma and allergy drug Singulair recorded 1% growth. U.S. sales have been hurt by an over-the-counter version of rival drug Zyrtec by Johnson - Johnson (JNJ) as well as by concerns about the Food and Drug Administration's March alert of a possible association between Singulair and suicide.
Combined sales of anti-hypertension drugs Cozaar and Hyzaar rose 9%. Sales of diabetes drug Januvia doubled and osteoporosis drug Fosamax slumped 51%.
Looking ahead, Merck expects 2008 earnings, excluding items, of $3.28 to $3.32 a share, compared with the forecast of $3.28 to $3.38 a share issued earlier this year before it and other expectations were pulled in July to study impacts of a Vytorin study on results.
It also estimates 2005 to 2010 earnings growth in the mid-to high-single digits, excluding items, on a per-share basis with sales growth of 2% to 4%

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