National Editor

Having let go 14 workers last year, Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. chipped another 24 employees off its workforce, bringing the staff number to 140 - and narrowing the focus further to drug development.

The company has programs in immunology and hepatitis C virus. In the former, a Phase I trial has begun with R112 for allergic rhinitis.

"It's a small-molecule organic compound," said Raul Rodriguez, senior vice president of business development and commercial operations for South San Francisco-based Rigel. "We should have the data sometime mid-year," he added.

He called the study "kind of a Phase I/II trial," in which patients are given an allergen to determine sensitivity level, then given the drug, and then given a placebo, to test their reactions in each scenario.

"If this one is positive we'll do another this year," he told BioWorld Today. "A real Phase II will be a park study, where you take them out to a park and see how they do."

The current trial in a hospital setting is "more controlled, since we know how much allergen they're getting," Rodriguez said, and outdoors the conditions will vary more.

"It might be windy or not windy that day but, again, the trial will be placebo controlled," he said.

The compound already has been shown safe in a finished Phase I study in Britain that began last September. A preclinical candidate for an autoimmune indication will likely be selected this quarter, too.

In the HCV program, "we're hoping to file an [investigational new drug application] later this year," Rodriguez said, and several compound series in the ligase class related to immunology and cancer are being evaluated for preclinical development.

Rigel entered a drug discovery collaboration last summer when it signed a deal with Tokyo-based Daiichi Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. on protein degradation related to cancer. It has several other significant collaborations in target discovery and other areas. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 13, 2002.)

About a year ago, Rigel raised $31.5 million in a private financing and reported a burn rate of $4 million to $5 million per quarter. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 18, 2002.)

The burn rate "has gone up, but I can't tell you the numbers yet," Rodriguez said, adding that a financial report for the fourth quarter is due "in the next couple of weeks."

Rigel's stock (NASDAQ:RIGL) closed Monday at 87 cents, down 2 cents.