press release archive

Rigel Reports Third Quarter 2001 Financial Results

South San Francisco, CA - November 07, 2001

Revenues for the third quarter of 2001 increased to $4.2 million up from $3.2 million in the third quarter of 2000. The increase in revenues for the third quarter primarily reflects Rigel’s expanded Novartis Collaboration with the addition of the angiogenisis program in July 2001.

Operating expenses for the third quarter of 2001 were $10.6 million, as compared to $10.5 million for the third quarter of 2000, primarily reflecting increased investment in research and development. For the third quarter of 2001, Rigel reported a net loss of $6.2 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to a net loss of $7.3 million, or $0.25 per share pro forma, in the third quarter of 2000.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2001, revenues from research collaborations increased to $10.5 million, up from $10.0 million for the comparable period in 2000. Operating expenses for the first nine months of 2001 decreased to $29.3 million from $29.6 million during the comparable period in 2000. The Company’s net loss in the nine months ended September 30, 2001 was $17.7 million, or $0.48 per share, compared with a net loss of $19.6 million, or $0.68 per share pro forma, for the nine months ended September 30, 2000.

At September 30, 2001, Rigel held cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $37.3 million as compared to approximately $53.0 million at December 31, 2000.

“Rigel continues to make great strides on all fronts as we advance from a pure discovery company to a development stage company. For example, we believe our progress should enable us to file several IND’s over the next couple of years, with the first one expected in the summer of 2002,” said James M. Gower, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. “In addition, we are particularly excited about the work we are doing in establishing an exciting new class of small molecule oncology targets – ubiquitin ligase inhibitors – and you will continue to hear more from us in this area.”

Ubiquitin ligases are enzymes involved in many important cellular functions, including cell division and the progression of certain cancers. These enzymes represent a promising new class of anti-cancer targets for which Rigel is developing inhibitors to work selectively against these targets at the molecular level.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (www.rigel.com) is a drug discovery and development company that uses advanced functional genomic tools to discover novel drug targets. Rigel’s technology is designed to identify molecules that play an important role in regulating a human cell’s response to disease by testing a very large number of proteins in a very large number of cells to determine which proteins will change the cell’s response to the disease. Rigel currently has programs in asthma/allergy, autoimmunity, transplant rejection, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic bronchitis, cancerous tumor growth and hepatitis C. In addition to its proprietary programs, Rigel has research and product development collaborations with Pfizer Inc., Cell Genesys, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. and Novartis Pharma A.G. Rigel is based in South San Francisco, California.

Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include those relating to the future direction and success of Rigel’s current research activities. Rigel cautions readers that forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements due to the risks and factors identified in Rigel's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. The information in this press release is current as of its release date. Rigel does not intend to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.