Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will acquire Sirna at a price of $13 per share in cash, making Sirna a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck.
The acquisition of Sirna complements the research on RNA expression that Merck has been doing since the 2001 acquisition of Rosetta Inpharmatics and enhances Merck’s position in RNAi technology. The RNA technology was the basis for the Nobel Prize in medicine awarded earlier this month.
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will acquire Sirna at a price of $13 per share in cash, making Sirna a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck.
“We believe that RNAi could significantly change the way in which we go about discovering and developing drugs, and could become a new way to treat patients with unmet medical needs,” said Peter Kim, president, Merck Research Laboratories.
Merck also said that the RNA technology showed potential in the development of cancer treatments.
Sirna’s lead RNA development candidate, Sirna-027, is currently moving into phase II development for the treatment of age related macular degeneration as part of a collaboration with Allergan.
In addition to the collaboration with Allergan, Sirna has established a strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline for the development of siRNA compounds for the treatment of respiratory diseases. Additionally, Sirna has several programs covering a broad range of therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, metabolism, CNS and dermatology.
The two companies expect to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of 2007.