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Rigel Announces Extension of Asthma/Allergy Drug Discovery Collaboration with Pfizer

South San Francisco, CA - January 25, 2001

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) today announced that Pfizer has elected to extend the asthma/allergy research collaboration with Rigel for an additional year. The ongoing research will be conducted at Rigel and Pfizer will provide additional research funding.

" We are delighted that that Pfizer considers the work with Rigel a priority and has chosen to renew the collaboration," said James M. Gower, president and chief executive officer of Rigel. "It is a tremendous validation of our drug discovery technology and we look forward to continued progress."

The companies originally entered into a two-year agreement in January 1999 to use Rigel's proprietary peptide libraries to identify intracellular drug targets that control the production of IgE, a key mediator in allergic reactions and asthma in B cells. Under the terms of the extended agreement, Pfizer will provide research funding to Rigel for an additional year, as well as research milestones. Rigel will also receive royalty payments relating to the development and commercialization of any human or animal therapeutics resulting from the collaboration. In return, Pfizer will have worldwide rights to develop and market human and veterinary drugs against the targets that inhibit the switch to IgE 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.

Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include those regarding the potential applicability of Rigel's research efforts and Rigel's business strategy and research and development efforts. We caution readers that forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements due to the risks and factors identified Rigel's Registration Statement on Form S-1, No. 333-45864, as amended. The information in this press release is current as of its release date. Rigel takes no responsibility to update the information contained in this press release.