press release archive

Rigel To Present At UBS Warburg’s Global Life Sciences Conference On October 7, 2002

SOUTH SAN FRANCSICO, Calif. - October 01, 2002

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) will present at the UBS Warburg Global Life Sciences Conference on Monday, October 7, 2002, at 8:00 a.m. EDT at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. James Gower, Rigel’s chairman and chief executive officer, will update the investment community on Rigel’s business and clinical development efforts, including the company’s lead drug development programs and the status of R112, the first in a new class of drug for treating allergic rhinitis that recently entered clinical testing.

Rigel’s presentation will be webcast and can be accessed by going to the Investor Resources page of the company's website: www.rigel.com.

About Rigel (www.rigel.com)

Rigel’s mission is to become a source of novel, small-molecule drugs to meet large, unmet medical needs. The company’s business model is to develop a portfolio of drug candidates and to take these through phase II clinical trials, after which Rigel intends to seek commercialization partners for completion of clinical evaluation, regulatory approval and marketing. Rigel has identified three areas for its lead product research programs: mast cell activation to treat asthma/allergy, an antiviral agent to treat hepatitis C and ubiquitin ligases for cancer. Rigel has begun clinical testing of its first product, for allergic rhinitis, and plans to follow that with two additional drugs in the clinic within 18 months. Rigel’s approach to drug discovery is based on advanced, proprietary functional genomics techniques that allow the company to identify targets with a demonstrable role in a disease pathway and to efficiently screen for those that are likely to be amenable to drug modulation.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements related to Rigel's business strategy, drug development programs and clinical trial plans. 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 "plans" and "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause Rigel's results to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements, such as the risks detailed from time to time in Rigel's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001. Rigel does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

Contact: Susan Scher, MD
Phone: 650.624.1246
Email: invrel@rigel.com