Year: 2017-18

Company: Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Liaison(s): Ben Cadieux, Eunice Kym

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California dedicated to the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that significantly improve the lives of patients with immune and hematological disorders, cancers and rare diseases. Rigel’s pioneering research focuses on signaling pathways that are critical to disease mechanisms.

Rigel is transitioning into a fully integrated, commercial-stage company as its leading drug candidate, fostamatinib, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor, undergoes review by the FDA for adult ITP. Fostamatinib is seeking approval to treat patients with chronic or persistent immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and has a PDUFA date of April 17, 2018. Ongoing clinical programs for fostamatinib include Phase 2 trials for autoimmune hemolytic anemia and IgA nephropathy.

As directed by Rigel’s Medical Affairs department, our Team Master’s Project team was tasked with providing a comprehensive assessment of the current treatment landscape in adult ITP through literature review and systematic competitive intelligence research. General objectives of this deliverable were to provide insights on key data that drive practice patterns particularly for, but not limited to, 1) clinical trial results that support the off-label use of agents in this space, 2) understand emerging competitive threats in development and/or research opportunities for Rigel, and 3) offer recommendations, whenever possible, to the Medical Affairs department on activities that shape meaningful scientific exchange with health care practitioners in support of a successful adoption of fostamatinib in adult ITP, once it is approved by the FDA.