SF New Developments

San Francisco Business Times - November 3, 2006 by Daniel S. Levine

Drug giant Merck & Co.”s acquisition of San Francisco-based Sirna Therapeutics Inc. for $1.1 billion provides a major pharmaceutical anchor to San Francisco”s efforts at Mission Bay. Merck said it will acquire Sirna for $13 per share cash, about a 100 percent premium over the price of the stock prior to the deal. It will operate Sirna as a wholly owned subsidiary. Sirna CEO Howard Robin said he expects Merck to retain the 90-person staff in San Francisco and Boulder, Colo., and the company to move forward with plans to move into Alexandria Real Estate Equities” new building at 1700 Owens St. when it is completed next month. For Sirna, the deal provides assurances that it will have the resources to fulfill the promise of its technology. “We could develop drugs as well, but if you are talking about a company like Merck with the massive resources they have in research, this truly accelerates and solidifies the technology,” Robin said.

The deal represents a remarkable turn of fortunes for Sirna, which less than four years ago was running out of money and had a market capitalization of about $5 million. The company, which is working on developing a new class of drugs that uses RNA interference or RNAi technology, was one of the first biotechnology companies to be drawn to San Francisco”s Mission Bay with the development of the University of California at San Francisco”s campus there. RNAi is a natural, selective process for turning off genes. RNAi is triggered by so-called short interfering RNA or siRNAs. Typically, drugs work by binding with proteins that are the underlying cause of a specific disease. Sirna”s technology, by contrast, prevents the production of the deleterious protein. …

Go to Original Article Daniel S. Levine covers biotechnology for the San Francisco Business Times.