The economic affairs ministry and pharmaceuticals giant Merck are looking into ways to reduce job losses at the Organon birth control pill plant in Oss, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.

There were top level talks between ministry officials and Merck on Wednesday and the company is due to announce how many jobs will go later today, the paper says.
Organon was sold by AkzoNobel to Schering-Plough at the end of 2007 and Schering-Plough was taken over by the US company Merck at the end of last year.
Insiders told the paper jobs are to go at both the production and R&D divisions in Oss, Noord-Brabant province. Organon employs 4,500 people worldwide.