Novel mechanism wins green light for Rigel Pharma's autoimmune therapy

18 April 2018

Shares in Californian biotech Rigel Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RIGL) leapt a tenth yesterday on news that the US regulator had approved Tavalisse (fostamatinib disodium hexahydrate) to treat adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).

The oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor is indicated for patients who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment, and the firm plans to launch the therapy by the end of next month. Peak sales are forecast to reach $360 million.

The therapy was filed with orphan drug designation in June last year. Rigel had been developing Tavalisse for rheumatoid arthritis, but changed indication after a trial failure caused former partner AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) to pull out.

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