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., Inc. (), Tuesday said it will move its headquarters from Whitehouse Station, New Jersey to its existing property in Summit, N.J., in order to reduce its ?global real estate footprint? and lower expenses.
The global health care giant said that the headquarters relocation is part of its ongoing program to ?consolidate its global real estate footprint? and lower its annual operating expenses, following its merger with Schering Plough in 2009.
?The relocation of our headquarters will help us achieve our future vision, reduce the size of our operating footprint, and increase agility as we adapt to our changing business environment,? said Merck's chairman and CEO Kenneth C. Frazier.
The company said that the Summit location was selected as the site for its new headquarters because it is a strategic, multi-use site with excess work-space capacity and is adjacent to ?major transportation hubs and desirable urban centers?.
Merck said its property in Summit currently houses research, manufacturing, animal health and consumer care operations and is home to 1,800 people.?
It expects to close the doors in Whitehouse Station beginning in 2014, with the transition to be completed by mid-2015.
The company noted that about 2,000 employees and contractors currently situated at the Whitehouse Station global headquarters building either will move to the new facilities in Summit or to other nearby facilities such as those in Branchburg, N.J. and Cokesbury, N.J.
Merck produces prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, consumer care and animal health products. The company makes everything from flu vaccines to Coppertone sun lotion, Claritin for allergies, and Dr. Scholl?s foot inserts and operates in more than 140 countries.
In July, the company reporting that its phase III trial for osteoporosis drug odanacatib met primary efficacy outcomes at the first planned interim analysis, and is being concluded early.
The Data Monitoring Committee completed the analysis and recommended that the study be closed early due to "robust efficacy and a favourable benefit-risk profile", the company said. Merck said then that it was taking steps to close the trial and added that the process to close such a large multi-center trial would take a number of months.
The company expects to submit regulatory applications for the approval of odanacatib in the U.S., European Union, and Japan in the first half of 2013.
Shares of Merck edged up 0.02 per cent as at about 1:45 p.m. ET, trading at $46.35.
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