On Mar. 6, 2014, Merck announced that it had sold Sirna to Alnylam for $175 million. Sirna, orginally known as Ribozyme Pharma was founded in Boulder in 1992 with a focus on the broad potential of ribozymes for use in the development of human therapeutics and other areas and in the identification of gene function.

The deal marks another big write off for Merck, which is going through the process of deciding just what kind of drug developer it wants to be. Merck paid $1.1 billion for Sirna back in the go-go days of 2006. But two years ago Merck officials locked up a San Francisco facility it got in the buyout, laid off dozens of workers and said they would absorb the research effort in its global operations.

Merck announced in 2013 that it would restructure R&D, looking to jump-start its product development efforts after a long dry spell in the clinic.