I have been working at Merck & Co. Research Laboratories for numerous years - Executive Director Merck Employee Review

2.0
Mar 3, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very experienced, skilled and knowledgeable R&D scientists in many therapeutic areas

Cons

Very good place to be if you want to spend 30-40% of your time in unnecessary compliance training and career development, instead of conducting science. Politics is more important than innovation & good science. Portfolio and pipeline is very poor - only based on Keytruda... CNS division has never deliver anything in 17 years beside Belsomra.

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5.0
Jul 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work Life Balance, Benefits, Remote Work

Cons

Easy to stagnate if not being proactive about building skills and networking

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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