Merck pay thru the nose for eye drug company

Merck is buying Sirna Therapeutics, a tiny biotech for $1.1 billion in cash, a premium of more than 100%.

Sirna's lead drug is a treatment for macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness, and is seen as one of the most promising immediate avenues for RNAi research. That market now is dominated by Genentech, with Lucentis, an expensive version of Avastin .

But Lucentis must be injected into the eye as much as once a month.

Sirna Therapeutics are testing RNAi based blood-vessel blockers for the eye that might not need to be given as frequently as Lucentis, thus limiting the need for unpleasant eye injections.

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