Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. was a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

based

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

company that explored the use of

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

in human

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

therapy. Sirna's development pipeline included several

small interfering RNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA at first non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20-24 (normally 21) base pairs in length, similar to miRNA, and operating wi ...

(siRNA)

drug A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

s, thought to stably

silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the ce ...

the

expression Expression may refer to: Linguistics * Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence * Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning * Idiom, a type of fixed expression * Metaphorical expression, a particular word, phrase, o ...

of specific disease-related genes. Sirna's

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

of an siRNA-based treatment for age-related

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

was the first such trial for an siRNA drug. Sirna Therapeutics was acquired by Merck & Co. in 2006, the cash transaction deal was worth $1.1 billion.Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Completion of Acquisition of Sirna Therapeutics, Inc.

Merck & Co Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and is named for Merck Group, founded in Germany in 1668, of whom it was once the American arm. The company does business as Merck Sharp ...

. Retrieved on March 3, 2012.

Headquarters and laboratory

Sirna maintained its laboratory on the northeastern edge of

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

.Directions
" Sirna Therapeutics. March 11, 2006. Retrieved on March 3, 2012. Originally the corporate headquarters were also located in Boulder. Sirna, at one point, launched a search for a new headquarters complex. It originally considered multiple cities, including

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

and

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. Sirna selected San Francisco due to its proximity to various scientific institutions, its workforce, and the payroll tax exemption for biotechnology companies. Sirna's move was a part of a trend of biotechnology companies moving to San Francisco, bolstered due to a campaign to attract biotechnology companies to San Francisco and tax breaks instituted by

Mayor of San Francisco The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by t ...

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...

. Business leaders of San Francisco who hoped that the city would have a major biotechnology presence had a positive reception to the Sirna decision.Gordon, Rachel and Bernadette Tansey.
Another biotech arrival Sirna Therapeutics moving to S.F.'s Mission Bay area
" ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

''. Saturday March 5, 2005. C1. Retrieved on March 3, 2012. The mayor's office, the Chamber of Commerce, and the San Francisco Center for Economic Development contributed to bringing Sirna to San Francisco. Howard Robin, the president and chief executive officer of Sirna, said that the first wave of moves would be the ten highest ranking employees; he did not say how many employees would relocate to San Francisco. The company planned to maintain a facility in Boulder. Ultimately Sirna occupied Suite 6504 at China Basin Landing, while the laboratory facilities remained in Boulder, with administrative, manufacturing, and research facilities.Boulder Campus
" Sirna Therapeutics. March 11, 2006. Retrieved on March 3, 2012.

References

External links

{{Portal, San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado, Companies
Sirna Therapeutics
(Archive) Biotechnology companies of the United States Health care companies based in California Companies based in San Francisco Merck & Co. 2006 mergers and acquisitions