Pros
Big pharma budget (in relative terms), GLP-like lab organization, opportunities for cross-training, remaining perks (decent vacation is the last one left)
Cons
Poor leadership, lack of foresight, poor R&D process, no clear vision, no long term plan. It is not clear how Merck intends to generate a healthy product pipeline with such erratic decision making over the last 7 years. The talent pool has been gutted through layoffs and brain drain (voluntary separations), processes were compromised through outsourcing to unproven CROs and decisions on feeding projects into pre-clinical research space have been stifled by the over-abundance of caution. In such risk-averse corporate culture, Merck would be well served to keep selling Coppertone as they are incapable of long-term commitment to investing in bringing new drugs on the market. Ironically, Merck divested themselves of the consumer products division, reportedly just to get some cash flow. Bad outlook.