press release archive

Rigel to Present at White Mountain Capital Biotechnology Conference on June 5, 2003

South San Francisco, CA - May 30, 2003

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) will present at the White Mountain Capital Biotechnology Conference on Thursday June 5, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. EDT at the IBM Conference Center in Palisades, NY. James M. Gower, Rigel’s chairman and chief executive officer, will outline Rigel’s business and clinical development strategies and discuss the company’s efforts in its three lead drug development programs.

About Rigel
Rigel's mission is to become a source of novel, small-molecule drugs to meet large, unmet medical needs. Rigel has identified three lead product development programs: mast cell inhibition to treat immunologic diseases such as asthma/allergy and autoimmune disorders, antiviral agents to treat hepatitis C, and ligases, a new class of cancer drug targets. Rigel has begun clinical testing of its first product candidate, for allergic rhinitis, and plans to begin clinical trials of two additional drug candidates for the treatment of hepatitis C and rheumatoid arthritis within the next twelve months. 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 partners for completion of clinical evaluation, regulatory approval and marketing. 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 and financing 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," "believes," 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 risks associated with the successful completion of the proposed financing and the stockholders' approval of additional measures related to the financing, timing and success of clinical trials as well 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, 2002. Rigel does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.