Rigel churns out an­oth­er late-stage clin­i­cal fail­ure — this time in Covid-19

In the wan­ing days of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, one pen­ny stock biotech is re­port­ing a close miss for its sole ap­proved drug. But alas, a close miss is still a miss.

Rigel Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals — a biotech with on­ly ty­ro­sine ki­nase in­hibitor fos­ta­ma­tinib in its ar­se­nal — re­port­ed topline re­sults Tues­day from a Phase III Covid-19 tri­al in pa­tients with­out res­pi­ra­to­ry fail­ure and who had cer­tain, “high-risk prog­nos­tic” fac­tors. The drug is on­ly cur­rent­ly in­di­cat­ed to treat chron­ic im­mune throm­bo­cy­tope­nia, a blood con­di­tion when platelets are low.

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