Rigel Secures Hepatitis C Virus License Agreement From Chiron Corporation
Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has entered into a nonexclusive licensing agreement with Chiron Corporation granting Rigel a license to discover, develop and commercialize small molecule therapeutics against certain hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug targets. The financial terms and other details of the license were not disclosed.
"Today's agreement provides Rigel with the flexibility to pursue our innovative HCV research program and develop potential breakthrough treatments for HCV," stated James M. Gower, chairman and chief executive officer. "We believe that Rigel's lead drug candidate, R803, has the potential to become an anchor of therapeutic approaches to treating this intractable virus."
The prevalence of HCV infection in the United States has been estimated at nearly 4 million, with approximately 170 million infected worldwide.(1) Rigel's lead HCV small-molecule drug candidate, R803, rapidly and selectively targets HCV and potentially stops replication of the virus by interfering with the viral polymerase, a protein needed for viral replication. Rigel believes that R803 will be one of the first direct antivirals to enter development and is substantially different from interferon alpha, the main current therapy, which primarily works indirectly to boost the immune system.
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