Monday January 15, 6:18 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Rigel and Pfizer Amend Deadline Date on Option to
Renew Asthma/Allergy Drug Discovery Collaboration
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL - news) 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.
SOURCE: Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. |
