SmithKline to Market Coulter’s Key Drug

SmithKline Beecham, Britain’s second-biggest drug maker, agreed to develop and market Coulter Pharmaceutical Inc.’s top experimental cancer drug. The alliance could be worth up to $132.5 million in payments and credits to Palo Alto, Calif.-based Coulter, a biotechnology start-up. The drug, called Bexxar, is in late-stage trials for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the blood and lymph tissues that afflicts 270,000 people in the U.S. alone. The two companies would share profit equally if the drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Bexxar would compete with a similar drug known as Rituxan, developed by San Diego-based IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp. and South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. Coulter shares rose $2.75 to close at $31.38 on Nasdaq. SmithKline’s American depositary receipts rose 81 cents to close at $63.38 on the NYSE.