Rigel Receives Two Milestone Payments From Daiichi

Rigel Pharmaceuticals announced that it has received two milestone payments from Daiichi Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., as part of their collaboration to identify a new type of oncology drug. The two compounds are potent and selective inhibitors of a specific ligase target that is the basis of the collaboration. Moving forward, Daiichi will work to advance these novel compounds into preclinical development. The research collaboration, which began in August 2002 aims to identify specific small molecule drug candidates against a ligase target that controls cancer cell proliferation through protein degradation.

Yahoo News (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050505/sfth019.html?.v=8)