BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Roadmap to big cap

February 22, 2010 8:00 AM UTC

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. is looking to last week's deal with AstraZeneca plc as the springboard from small cap biotech to fully functioning biopharmaceutical company. The deal provides Rigel with enough money to invest in its unpartnered preclinical programs for the next three years and gives its lead asset access to the clinical, regulatory and commercialization capabilities of a deep-pocketed partner.

Rigel granted AstraZeneca exclusive rights to its entire oral Syk kinase inhibitor program, including fostamatinib disodium (R788), for all indications outside the respiratory field...