Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc announced that its oncology collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C., has resulted in the acceptance by Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development of two validated drug targets. The acceptance of the targets by Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development will result in a milestone payment to Rigel.

Rigel's collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development is based on the discovery of targets directed at the cell cycle, a series of biological events that each cell undergoes in order to divide. In mutated cells, the genetic "switches" that regulate this process are disabled, which can lead to uncontrolled cell division and proliferation (cancer). The targets selected by Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development may enable the development of new agents that can alter the abnormal cell cycle regulation process or induce mutated cells to self-destruct (apoptosis).

Under the agreement that began in January 1999, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development provided research funding for an exclusive, worldwide royalty-bearing license to cell cycle-based products resulting from the collaboration. In early January 2002, the companies announced that they extended the collaboration for an additional two years until December 2003.