Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
Merck paid $1.1B for RNAi in 2006, sold the remains to Alnylam for $175M in 2014 — a near-total write-off and one of pharma's most cited cautionary tales.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →Merck to pay $1.1B ($13/share, ~102% premium) for Sirna Therapeutics; Merck framed RNAi as complementary to its Rosetta Inpharmatics RNA-expression work.
Merck wrote off RNAi and sold the Sirna platform to Alnylam for $175M up front plus milestones — recovering a fraction of the original $1.1B; viewed as one of…
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RNAi technology; $13/share, 102% premium; later written off and divested to Alnylam
Merck paid $1.1B for RNAi in 2006, sold the remains to Alnylam for $175M in 2014 — a near-total write-off and one of pharma's most cited cautionary tales.
Assessment window: 15yr post-close.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Sirna Therapeutics Inc. (this deal) | 2006 | $1.1B | 8 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Acceleron Pharma Inc. | 2021 | $11.5B | 90 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Peloton Therapeutics Inc. | 2019 | $2.2B | 88 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / AstraZeneca PLC | 2017 | $8.5B | 87 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Moderna, Inc. | 2022 | $250M | 86 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Moderna, Inc. | 2016 | $250M | 84 |
| Merck & Co. Inc. / Eisai Co., Ltd. | 2018 | $5.8B | 83 |
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More: 2006 deals · Merck & Co. Inc. deals