Alnylam to acquire Merck's Sirna Therapeutics

US RNAi therapeutics specialist Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNY) says it has reached agreement to acquire US pharma giant Merck & Co’s (NYSE: MRK) wholly-owned subsidiary Sirna Therapeutics, comprising intellectual property and RNAi assets including preclinical therapeutic candidates, chemistry, siRNA-conjugate and other delivery technologies.

Under the terms of the deal, in exchange for acquiring the stock of Sirna Therapeutics, Alnylam will make an upfront payment of $175 million in cash and equity ($25 million cash/$150 million in Alnylam common stock) to Merck. In addition, Merck is eligible to receive up to $105 million in developmental and sales milestones per product, as well as single-digit royalties, associated with the progress of certain preclinical candidates discovered by Merck. Merck is also eligible to receive up to $10 million in milestone payments and single-digit royalties on Alnylam products covered by Sirna’s patent estate.

Acquisition will further efforts to build a new class of medicines