By Randall Osborne

West Coast Editor

The financial window opens, and the window closes - and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. found enough of a gap to file again for an initial public offering (IPO), aiming to sell 9 million shares for $8 to $10 each, which would raise $81 million at the middle range, or $90 million at the high end of the range.

Earlier this year, South San Francisco-based Rigel pulled its IPO, citing unfavorable market conditions. It had planned to raise $100 million, but did not specify the number of shares or the price at which they would be offered. (See BioWorld Today, April 14, 2000, p. 1, and Feb. 7, 2000, p. 1.)

Describing itself as a "post-genomics combinatorial biology company," Rigel is developing small-molecule drugs, and in three years has identified 15 new drug targets, without knowing the identity or sequence of related genes. The company has programs in asthma and allergies; autoimmunity; transplant rejection; rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease; and tumor growth.

By creating a "disease-like setting" to examine cellular response, Rigel creates a map of protein-to-protein interactions, and thereby is able to choose targets specific to a disease - and develop orally administered drugs less likely to have side effects. Retroviruses are deployed to introduce as many as 100 million peptides or proteins into normal or diseased cells, which are then sifted for analysis by using high-throughput fluorescent cell sorters.

Collaborators include Cell Genesys Inc., of Foster City, Calif.; Janssen Pharmaceutica, of Beerse, Belgium; Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., of San Diego; Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland; and Pfizer Inc., of New York.

The company said all shares will be offered by the company, in an IPO underwritten by a group led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, with Lehman Brothers and Robertson Stephens acting as co-managers. Underwriters have been granted a 30-day overallotment option to buy 1.35 million shares. Rigel's post-offering shares would total 39.5 million, and the company aims to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol RIGL.