No Loyalty, "Me-Too" Drug Research - Associate Principal Scientist Merck Employee Review

2.0
Aug 5, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Research budgets are generous (or were), ample time is given to investigate scientific leads (but that also made it hard to judge when a project was dead). Pension, benefits, vacation time and culture are very good. I really enjoyed who I worked with. The West Point site had a very academic feel, and I find that a plus.

Cons

I worked there for 17 years and each year was different depending on the zeitgeist of management tools. We wasted a lot of time redefining research areas and re-positioning "teams". So many good, talented professionals left or were severed so that management could restructure and back-fill lab-positions. It is an elitist corporation.

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5.0
Jul 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good experience to have for an internship

Cons

No negative feedback or experience

4.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits like medical/dentist/vision, pension, stock option, 401k match. Co workers are excellent, pretty good on site symposiums, lot of diversity clubs/activities. Innovation is extremely welcomed. Diversity in research portfolio. AI/ML is heavily invested to make databases more efficient.

Cons

Micro managing, especially within the biologics department, potentially others. Promotions are limited, and pay bump is poor. Company invests too much in buying companies rather than keeping talent - lay offs let go of great talented people. Merck is afraid of investing into exploratory biology and doesn’t take risk - they even admit they would rather see other companies clinical data or R&D data rather than taking a risk. Although it’s slow going in building new software, current databases are slow and needs much improvement. Extremely poor work/life balance.

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