press release archive

Rigel Names Gregory S. Wagner, Ph.D. to Head Preclinical Development Activities

South San Francisco, CA - January 30, 2001

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) today announced that Gregory S. Wagner, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., has joined the company in the newly-created position of Senior Director of Pharmacology and Preclinical Development. In this role, Dr. Wagner will be responsible for directing the preclinical development of Rigel?s growing portfolio of small molecule therapeutics. Dr. Wagner reports directly to Donald G. Payan, M.D., Rigel's executive vice president and chief scientific officer.

"We are delighted that Greg has joined Rigel, " said Dr. Payan. "His great depth of experience in preclinical drug development will be invaluable as we establish our internal product development capability to commercialize the drug candidates that Rigel will develop on its own. Greg will be instrumental in building the scientific staff, preparing regulatory submissions and in helping us select our first investigational new drug candidate.?

Dr. Wagner has over 25 years of drug development experience. During that time, he has worked with several leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Penederm Inc., Bayer AG, Upjohn and Proctor & Gamble. Immediately prior to joining Rigel, Dr. Wagner held the position of Senior Director of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sugen, Inc., a subsidiary of Pharmacia Corporation. During his tenure there, Dr. Wagner was responsible for establishing several departments to support preclinical development of Sugen?s portfolio of small molecule oncology therapeutics, and prepared three investigational new drug (IND) submissions for new molecular entities. He is certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (D.A.B.T.) and his research has been published in scientific journals and presented at prestigious scientific conferences, including the American Association for Cancer Research. Dr. Wagner earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Iowa.

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 and development efforts and Rigel's business strategy. 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 in Rigel's Registration Statement 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.