Another 152 Lost Jobs -- Added To "Fast" Fred Hassan's Tally -- Now At Well Over 48,000

This is a rather somber New Years' Eve duty -- to have to keep track of all the Fred Hassan-engendered job cuts, but we knew when the last of the Saphris^® (asenapine) geographies were sold "back" -- to Brent Saunders, at Forest Labs, as its new CEO (in early December 2013) -- this was largely. . . inevitable.

Regrettable, but inevitable. That puts Fred at over 48,000 jobs destroyed -- by his own pen.

More broadly, it puts Fred at very near the top of the list of American corporate job-destroyers. Nice.

Here is Philly.com, on the latest WARN Act notices -- out of Whitehouse Station:

. . . .The continuing cutbacks and restructuring at Merck & Co. included the loss of 152 jobs based in Upper Gwynedd, Montgomery County, when the drugmaker sold the marketing rights to the drug Saphris to Forest Laboratories in early December.

As part of that, Merck filed a WARN notice (named for the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act), that indicated the layoffs of Saphris sales representatives would be effective Feb. 3, 2014.

Merck said Oct. 1 that it was cutting 8,500 more jobs from its global workforce. About 500 jobs were cut from the facility in West Point, according to a WARN notice posted later in October.

Meanwhile, the local steelworkers union website said that 40 to 45 union workers might lose jobs at West Point in early January. . . .

Yep. These are all ""Fast" Fred related," in one way or another.

Have a safe one, one and all -- remember, as ever, it's "Amateur Night" out there, tonight. We "pros"(!) stay home, tonight. Have fun, but expect occasional idiocy.