UPDATE: JP Morgan Maintains Rigel Pharmaceuticals at Overweight Post 4Q Results

In a report published Tuesday, JP Morgan maintained an Overweight rating on Rigel Pharmaceuticals

and maintained its $10 price target. JP Morgan reported that, “Our recommendation is primarily based on the potential for RIGL's lead asset, fostamatinib, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA represents a huge worldwide annual market of ~$13B and growing, and we believe fostamatinib could emerge as a meaningful player in this space. We believe that Phase 2b TASKi2 data, as well as RIGL's partnership with AstraZeneca, provide important validation for the drug and are optimistic that the Phase 3 OSKIRA program will be successful (Phase 3 readout is expected in 1H13). In addition, we believe that RIGL is well positioned financially with a healthy balance sheet (as well as a partner that is paying for fostamatinib's Phase 3 program) and that the company's early-stage pipeline represents close to a free call option at current valuation." Rigel Pharmaceuticals' shares closes at $6.82 on Monday.