Schering-Plough plans to cut 10% off expenses

Pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough said today it plans to slash overall payroll expenses by at least 10%.

US based Schering-Plough said it's targeting the payroll reduction as part of a broader effort to achieve more than $200m (€165.32m) in annual cost savings.

The company did not specify how many jobs would be cut, but did say "customer-facing personnel" as well as employees who are involved with meeting a legal commitment to improve manufacturing operations wouldn't be affected by the payroll reduction plan.

The company employs approximately 1600 people in Ireland.

The bulk of these employees are in Cork and Wicklow in pharmaceutical manufacturing.