Following three megamergers and a global recession, the axe came down hard on the pharmaceutical sector this past year. According to Chicago-based consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 61,109 pharma and biotech jobs were cut through the end of November—18,000 more than were lost in all of 2008. Pfizer, which acquired Wyeth, reportedly handed out the most pink slips, with Merck, now the proud owner of Schering-Plough, not far behind. (As Nature Medicine went to press, newly joined Roche and Genentech had not yet announced all its layoffs.) With some of the industry's biggest blockbuster drugs soon to go off patent, many sales representatives were also given the heave-ho.