After announcing last week its plans to restructure operations and seek a new CEO, microarray technologies and molecular diagnostics company CombiMatrix now says that it will close its facility in Mukilteo, Wash., and consolidate itscorporate activities in Irvine, Calif. An unspecifiednumber of jobs will be cut in the process. CombiMatrix noted in papers filed with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects the process ofshutting down the Washington operations to take from six to eight weeks.

 

Around the same time came word from sources at Merck that as aresult of last year's merger with Schering Plough, the company is goingto consolidate office space and operations in New Jersey, at Roseland, Union and Lafayette. Reportedly, the Roseland andLafayette sites will close in 2010, while the Union facility will phaseout by the end of 2012. No specific numbers have been offered as to how many willlose their jobs, but it apparently will be a mix of people whowork in R&D, such as in Lafayette, where the Schering-Plough ResearchInstitute has offices, as well as manufacturing personnel and others.