press release archive

Rigel to Present at BIO CEO & Investor Conference 2003

South San Francisco, Calif. - February 24, 2003

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) today announced that James Gower, Chairman and CEO, will give a presentation on Rigel's clinical progress and development plans at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) CEO & Investor Conference. The conference will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on February 25-27, 2003. Mr. Gower will make his presentation on February 27, 2003, at 4:00 P.M. Eastern time.

To view the live webcast of Rigel's BIO CEO Conference presentation, please visit http://www.rigel.com at least ten minutes prior to the start of the event and follow the instructions. The presentation will be archived on Rigel's homepage until May 28, 2003.

The BIO CEO Conference is one of the largest life science investor events on the East Coast. The conference provides a unique forum where CEOs from small-, medium- and large-cap companies, as well as private companies planning to go public, can interact with investors and other members of the financial and health-care communities to discuss their progress. For additional information about the conference, please visit the conference website at http://www.bio.org/ceo/2003/

About Rigel
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 inhibition to treat immunologic diseases such as asthma/allergy and autoimmune disorders, antiviral agents to treat hepatitis C, and ubiquitin ligases, a new class of cancer drug targets. Rigel has begun clinical testing of its first product candidate, for allergic rhinitis, and plans to follow this by advancing two additional drug candidates into the clinic by the end of 2003. 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," "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, including 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 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2002. Rigel does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.