press release archive

Rigel Appoints Raul Rodriquez Vice President Business Development

South San Francisco, CA - May 01, 2000

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the appointment of Raul Rodriguez to the position of vice president, business development. Mr. Rodriguez will report directly to James M. Gower, president and chief executive officer.

"We are delighted that Raul has joined the company," said Gower. "With over ten years experience in business development from both the biotech and pharmaceutical perspectives, and I am confident that Raul will play a key role in expanding Rigel's corporate partnering activity, a strategy critical to our future growth."

Mr. Rodriguez, 39, joins Rigel from Ontogeny, Inc., a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA, where he was responsible for corporate partnering and technology strategies including partnerships for product opportunities at various stages of development, technology collaborations, acquisitions and academic licensing. Previously, he was with Scios, Inc., where he handled licensing, co-promotion and other business development and new product marketing activities. He also spent five years managing corporate business development and strategic planning at G.D.Searle, a leading pharmaceutical company, and was an associate with Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Mr. Rodriguez earned his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Masters of Public Health from University of Illinois. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College.

Based in South San Francisco, California, Rigel is a privately-held post-genomics combinatorial biology company focused on discovering a portfolio of novel small molecule drugs based on the Company's rapid drug target identification and validation technology. Rigel has nine product development programs in immunology and cancer and has entered into collaboration agreements with Cell Genesys; Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson company; Neurocrine Biosciences; Novartis and Pfizer.