A The Herald Scotland, a Scottish newspaper, puts the lie to what Ex-Schering-Plough executives were up to: "Say one thing; do the opposite."
That was the way Fred Hassan rolled -- and Tom Koestler knew it. So that's how he rolled, too -- just one year ago, in Scotland. [By late-July of 2009 (one year ago now), both Schering-Plough and Merck had put out SEC filings indicating there would be very significant facilities closings -- but declining to say which facilities.]
Here's the local account of yesterday's news that New Merck would -- with the stroke of a pen -- end five percent of all of Scotland's global pharma R&D industry:
. . . .Just a year ago [we were] sitting opposite an executive from Schering-Plough, listening to his hopes for investment and sharing his zeal for the company’s Lanarkshire operation.
As Dr. Thomas Koestler enthused about Scotland’s talent in pharmaceuticals, earthmoving equipment shuddered outside the window of the Newhouse plant, laying the foundations for a state-of-the-art new compound store.
But if it seemed to be digging in for the long term -- quite literally -- the world’s second-largest drugs firm, after its merger with former rival Merck, last night backtracked wildly on its vision for Scotland.
Asked last June how he would sum up the Scottish operation to its newly merged owners, Koestler said: "I would point out this is truly a centre of scientific excellence in global pharmaceutical research." "There is strong scientific culture among the 270 employees. We have world-class scientists here."
Now, those scientists will have to take their culture elsewhere.
Operating under the name MSD, the Lanarkshire plant currently employs about 250 people, equivalent to almost 5% of Scotland’s total pharmaceuticals industry. . . .
Truly unfortunate.
