Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc announced that Pfizer Inc has accepted a validated drug target from Rigel, which will result in a milestone payment.

"We are pleased that Pfizer has selected this target, which we believe has potential for asthma/allergy drug development," said James M. Gower, chairman and chief executive officer of Rigel, who will be speaking later today at The Robertson Stephens Medical Conference in New York. "This collaboration is successfully meeting its research objectives to identify possible targets for the development of products for the management of certain respiratory diseases."

The companies originally entered into a two-year agreement in January 1999 to use Rigel's proprietary peptide libraries to identify intracellular drug targets that control production of IgE, a key mediator in allergic reactions and asthma, in B cells. In 2001, Pfizer extended the agreement for an additional year. Under the terms of this agreement, Pfizer provides Rigel with target validation and research milestones as well as milestone and royalty payments relating to the development and commercialization of any human or animal therapeutics resulting from the collaboration. Pfizer will have worldwide rights to develop and market human and veterinary drugs for use against the targets that inhibit the switch to IgE in B cells.