Merck is set to cut 20 staffers from its Research Laboratories unit as it prepares to enter its new digs in South San Francisco.

Back in 2017, Merck said it was creating a new "multidisciplinary discovery research facility" located on East Grand Avenue in South San Francisco.

The California site is set to be ready for this year. A Merck spokesperson told FierceBiotech: "As the facility nears completion employees from our Palo Alto and temporary South San Francisco sites are preparing to transfer to the new location. As previously disclosed the Merck Research Laboratories Palo Alto facility at 901 California Avenue will be vacated permanently with the vast majority of employees due to transfer to the new South San Francisco location."

While the "vast majority" are to be transferred, the spokesperson confirmed that: "20 employees of the 186 employees working at the Palo Alto site did not transfer to the South San Francisco facility and they received a severance package."

The cuts were recently noted in a WARN notice (PDF).  

The new nine-story, multidisciplinary discovery research facility, centrally located on East Grand Avenue, will "accommodate more than 300 scientists and support research spanning exploratory biology through early clinical development," Merck says in the official blurb for the new facility.

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