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Rigel Pharmaceuticals Appoints Elliott Grossbard, M.D., Senior Vice President Of Medical Development

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., - April 02, 2002

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL - news) today announced that Elliott Grossbard, M.D., has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Medical Development. He will be responsible for Rigel's preclinical and clinical development activities.

"With over 20 years of drug development experience, Elliott will be an invaluable member of our team as we seek to file our first IND later this year, with two additional filings anticipated over the next 24 months," said James M. Gower, Chairman and CEO of Rigel. "Under his leadership, we will complete the infrastructure required to make Rigel's clinical development activities as productive as our target validation and drug discovery activities. This marks the beginning of our execution on the next phase of our business plan, giving us the capability to optimally develop the candidates resulting from our drug discovery efforts."

Dr. Grossbard's extensive career includes two decades working with biotech and pharmaceutical companies involved in the drug discovery and development process. Prior to joining Rigel, he was Vice President, Clinical Affairs for Avigen Inc., an Alameda-based gene therapy products company.

Before that, Dr. Grossbard served as Senior Vice President of Development and Vice President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs at Scios, Inc. During his tenure there, he oversaw several operational areas, including pharmacology/toxicology, quality control/quality and manufacturing/process sciences. He was also integral in the clinical development of Scios' lead compound Natrecor® (nesiritide), which was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute heart failure and the preclinical development of a variety of proteins, peptides and small molecules.

From 1982 through 1990, Dr. Grossbard held the positions of Associate Director, Clinical Research, and Director, Clinical Research at Genentech Inc. At Genentech, he directed the development of the thrombolytic agent, Activase® tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), from the earliest preclinical studies through clinical trials, NDA filing and FDA approval.

Dr. Grossbard joined Genentech from Hoffman-LaRoche where he held various positions in clinical research. Dr. Grossbard's primary research focus at Roche was on the interferon-alpha (Roferon®) program.

Prior to joining the corporate sector, Dr. Grossbard held numerous academic appointments at such leading research institutions as Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Cornell University Medical Center, including Director of the adult bone marrow transplant program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering.

Dr. Grossbard received his B.A. from Columbia College in 1969 and his M.D. from Columbia University in 1973. In addition, he received a M.S. in Law from Yale University School of Law in 1981. He trained in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in Hematology at Columbia University and Sloan-Kettering.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.rigel.com) is a drug discovery and development company that uses advanced functional genomics tools to discover novel drug targets that can be used to develop orally administered small molecule drugs. 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 a cell's response to the disease. Rigel currently has ten product development programs underway, with five programs being proprietary programs in the product development areas of asthma/allergy, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, cancerous tumor growth and hepatitis C. Rigel expects to begin clinical trials during 2002 with one or more drug candidates from these five programs. In addition to the Rigel-owned programs, Rigel has five programs in connection with our corporate partners in the product development areas of asthma/allergy, autoimmunity, transplant rejection and two programs in cancerous tumor growth. With Rigel's support, one of Rigel's partners is conducting an additional program in chronic bronchitis at its premises. Rigel has multi-year collaborations with Pfizer Inc., Cell Genesys, Inc., Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. and Novartis Pharma A.G. Rigel is based in South San Francisco, California.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements related to the Company's plans to commence clinical trials during the next 24 months. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the results of the Company to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements, including the risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.