Health and Healthcare

Why the Rigel Pharmaceuticals Update Could Signal Further Growth

Chris Lange

Published: January 30, 2017 12:55 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:21 pm

Shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: RIGL) made a solid gain to kick off the week after the company gave an update on one of its clinical programs. Specifically, the firm provided more results from its late stage clinical study of fostamatinib in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

Results from the FIT Phase 3 clinical studies of fostamatinib in chronic ITP showed that patients who responded to fostamatinib have a timely, robust and sustained response to treatment.

Seventeen patients who achieved a stable response to fostamatinib in the parent studies enrolled in Study 049. As of September 2016, responders who enrolled in the 049 study had maintained a median platelet count of 106,500/μL over this extended period.

These patients had been on fostamatinib treatment for a median of 16 months as of September 2016. Some 41 out of 44 former placebo patients had been treated with fostamatinib for a minimum of 12 weeks. Of those, 22% achieved a prospectively defined stable platelet response, which Rigel believes further validates fostamatinib as a potential new treatment option for some patients with this serious disease.

At the same time, Rigel reported its calculations for the overall response rate for its original studies. The overall response rate to fostamatinib is 29% compared to 2% for placebo.

Raul Rodriguez, Rigel’s president and chief executive, commented:

We now have over 16 months of FIT Phase 3 data to analyze and we’re very encouraged that chronic ITP patients who respond to fostamatinib are able to maintain a median platelet count of over 100,000 platelets/uL. These data continue to support our plan to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for fostamatinib in chronic ITP in the first quarter of this year.

Shares of Rigel were last seen up 9% at $2.16, with a consensus analyst price target of $6.20 and a 52-week trading range of $1.88 to $4.38.