Roche drops a bomb on the RNAi field

Roche singled out its work in RNAi when choosing its R&D targets for the budget axe, announcing plans to shutter the work underway in Kulmbach, Germany, Nutley, NJ and Madison, WI.

Roche singled out its work in RNAi when choosing its R&D targets for the budget axe, announcing plans to shutter the work underway in Kulmbach, Germany, Nutley, NJ and Madison, WI. That may not be a major cutback in the broad scope of the restructuring now going on in Big Pharma R&D these days, but it triggered a dark night of soul searching for companies in the RNAi field.

Over at In The Pipeline, Derek Lowe called the Roche move "the biggest vote of no-confidence yet for RNAi." And he goes on to note that while no one knows what the other big players are thinking, you have to wonder what comes next. "Are they wondering what in the world Roche is up to? Looking at it as a market opportunity, and glad to see less competition? Or wishing that they could do the same thing?"

Roche, for its part, made clear that RNAi still faces some big hurdles. Given the pharma company's new strategic direction, the science was also no longer a good fit.

"While ther