press release archive

Rigel and Pfizer Amend Deadline Date on Option to Renew Asthma/Allergy Drug Discovery Collaboration

South San Francisco, CA - January 15, 2001

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) today announced that it and Pfizer have agreed to amend the deadline until January 25, 2001, for Pfizer to elect whether to continue their asthma/allergy research collaboration with Rigel for an additional year. The companies entered into a two-year agreement in January 1999 to identify intracellular drug targets that control the production of IgE, a key mediator in allergic reactions and asthma in B cells.

Rigel uses post-genomics combinatorial biology technology to discover novel drug targets. Post-genomics combinatorial biology technology is designed to identify molecules which 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 the cell’s response to the disease. Rigel currently has programs in asthma/allergy, autoimmunity, transplant rejection, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancerous tumor growth and hepatitis C. Rigel has a collaboration with Pfizer Inc. and multi-year collaborations with Cell Genesys, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. and Novartis Pharma A.G. Rigel is based in South San Francisco, California.