press release archive

Rigel Appoints Raul Rodriguez as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

South San Francisco, CA - June 16, 2004

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) today announced that Raul Rodriguez has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Rigel. Mr. Rodriguez has been with Rigel for over four years, and has most recently served as Rigel's Senior Vice President, Business Development and Commercial Operations. In this new role he will assume additional operational responsibilities in a number of areas in addition to his current responsibilities, with a particular focus on project prioritization and management.

"I am very pleased to expand Raul's role within the Rigel team," commented James M. Gower, Chairman and CEO of Rigel. "His broad managerial experience in biotech and pharmaceutical companies will be a key asset to Rigel as it moves forward in implementing its product-driven business strategy."

With over 14 years experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Rodriguez has been with: G.D. Searle, a pharmaceutical company now part of Pfizer; Scios, a biotechnology company now part of Johnson & Johnson; and Curis, a biotechnology company. In these companies, Mr. Rodriguez held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of business development, planning, and general management. After earning his bachelor's degree with honors from Harvard College, he went on to earn a Masters of Public Health at the University of Illinois. Subsequently, he received his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

About Rigel (www.rigel.com)
Rigel's mission is to become a source of novel, small-molecule drugs to address large, unmet medical needs. The company has initiated three development programs: asthma/allergy, hepatitis C and rheumatoid arthritis. Rigel has begun clinical testing of its first two product candidates, R112 for allergic rhinitis and R803 for hepatitis C, and expects to begin clinical trials of R406 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by the end of 2004, to be followed by clinical trials for drug candidates in asthma and oncology.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements related to the potential value of Rigel's programs and product candidates and to Rigel's plans to pursue clinical development of product candidates and the timing thereof and the potential efficacy of product candidates. 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," "expects," "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 timing and success of clinical trials and the commercialization of product candidates, as well as other 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, 2003 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2004. Rigel does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.