So Roche (RHHBY.PK) is (as long rumored) going through with a 6% headcount reduction, worldwide. That’s bad news, but not unexpected bad news, and it certainly doesn’t make them stand out from the rest of big pharma. This sort of headline has been relentlessly applicable for several years now.

What surprised me was their announcement that they’re giving up on RNA interference as a drug mechanism. That’s the biggest vote of no-confidence yet for RNAi, which has been a subject of great interest (and a lot of breathless hype) for some years now. (There’s been a lot of discussion around here about the balance between those two).