  Merck & Co., Inc. (Whitehouse   Station, NJ, 

) will  purchase Sirna Therapeutics (San    Francisco, CA, 

), a biotechnology company developing a new class of medicines  based on RNA interference (RNAi) technology, for $1.1 billion. The acquisition  of Sirna complements the research on RNA expression that Merck has been doing  since its 2001 acquisition of Rosetta Inpharmatics, Inc.

Sirna Therapeutics has been at the forefront of  efforts to create RNAi-based therapeutics, which could significantly alter the  treatment of disease. RNAi-based therapeutics selectively catalyze the  destruction of the RNA transcribed from an individual gene. This enables an  entirely novel approach to developing drugs with the potential to produce  highly specific, potent, and long-lasting effects. Sirna’s lead clinical  candidate, Sirna-027, is currently moving into Phase 2 trials for the treatment  of the wet form of age-related macular degeneration, in a collaboration with  Allergan.

RNAi was discovered in 1998 by Andrew Z. Fire of  Stanford University  and Craig C. Mello of the University   of Massachusetts. Fire  and Mello won this year’s Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for that  discovery.

Merck's decision to acquire Sirna will  accelerate the development of RNAi-based therapeutics. Under the terms of the  agreement, Merck will acquire 100% of the equity of Sirna at a price of $13 per  share in cash, making Sirna a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.  The two companies expect to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of  2007.

News

Merck & Co., Inc. (Whitehouse Station, NJ, www.merck.com) will purchase Sirna Therapeutics (San Francisco, CA, www.sirna.com), a biotechnology company developing a new class of medicines based on RNA interference (RNAi) technology, for $1.1 billion.