Rigel Shares Get Crushed

Updated from 9:56 a.m. EST

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL Quote) was taken to the woodshed Thursday after the company said a trial of its lead product candidate, a hay fever treatment, fell short of the study's main goal.

Shares of Rigel were plunging $13.79, or 63%, to $8.13 on tremendous volume. More than 18 million shares have changed hands, compared with an average of about 273,000 for a full session during the last three months.

The South San Francisco, Calif., company said that a midstage study compared its R112, a prospective treatment for hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK Quote) Beconase AQ nasal spray to a placebo over a seven-day period. In the trial, the treatment with R112 failed to show a statistically significant difference vs. the placebo in improving seasonal nasal allergy symptoms, the study's primary endpoint. ...