BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Rigel slides after dropping asthma compound

August 27, 2013 12:07 AM UTC

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) was down $0.49 (14%) to $3.14 on Monday after discontinuing development of R343, which was in Phase II testing to treat allergic asthma. The move came after twice-daily inhaled R343 missed the primary endpoint of improving forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) from baseline to week eight vs. placebo in the Phase II SITAR trial. In 2011, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) returned rights to the inhaled spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor to Rigel as a result of the pharma's exit from the allergy and respiratory therapeutic space.

R343's discontinuation comes about two months after AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) said it would not proceed with regulatory submissions for Rigel's fostamatinib and was returning rights to the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compound. The partners had reported mixed primary endpoint data from the Phase III OSKIRA-2 and OSKIRA-3 trials of the oral SYK inhibitor (see BioCentury Extra, June 4). ...