Coulter Corporation and InterWest Partners form company to market new treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1995--Coulter Corporation and InterWest Partners announced they are forming a pharmaceutical company to market a promising new treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

The company, called Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc., will be headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. Its interim president and CEO will be Dr. Arnold Oronsky, a general partner in InterWest.

InterWest Partners, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is one of the larger U.S. venture capital firms with over $425 million of capital under management. Coulter Corporation, a privately-held company headquartered in Miami, is the world leader in blood cell analysis systems. Coulter also develops and markets a wide range of products for the health care and science industries, including instrumentation, software and immunologically-based reagents.

The first product to be developed by Coulter Pharmaceutical will be a new treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma utilizing radioactive iodine linked to a monoclonal antibody (B1). It has been developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and the University of Michigan in association with Coulter Corporation. This unique radioimmunotherapy is based on the ability of the B1 treatment to find and destroy cancerous tumor cells by delivering a measured dose of radiation selectively to the tumor site.

In a University of Michigan study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in August, 1993, Dr. Mark Kaminski reported that the B1 treatment of terminally ill patients was dramatically successful. Over 70 percent of patients experienced significant tumor reduction. In fact, in one-third of the patients the tumors had completely disappeared without reoccurrence. The report has attracted widespread attention in both the cancer research community and the general news media.

Non-Hodgkins lymphoma is a cancer that strikes about 90,000 people a year worldwide and over 400,000 are estimated to have the disease. Present treatments consist of lengthy or repeated regimens of radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

The patients' positive response to B1 therapy has continued. Today, 18 months after the NEJM article appeared, 80 percent of the patients treated are still alive. While most medical experts continue to express professional reserve because the studies on B1 are still continuing, there is a cautious optimism that for the first time there is a new effective treatment for this devastating form of cancer.

"Treatments like B1 radioimmunotherapy are the fruits of molecular immunology research applied to cancer therapy," said Dr. Oronsky. "We expect B1 to be the first of the next generation of cancer therapeutics -- much more effective with significantly fewer side effects."

Dr. Oronsky, before joining InterWest Partners last year, was vice president for Discovery Research for the Lederle Laboratories division of American Cyanamid Co. In his work with Lederle Laboratories (the pharmaceuticals division of American Cyanamid), he directed all the research for new drugs.

"Dr. Oronsky has been working his entire career in developing new drugs," said Robert R. Momsen, an InterWest general partner who specializes in health care investments. "He is uniquely qualified to provide leadership and assistance to the growing companies we invest in, like Coulter Pharmaceutical, and also to discover exciting new scientific and commercial opportunities coming out of academia and the pharmaceuticals industry."

Joseph R. Coulter, Jr., President of Coulter Corporation, said, "Patients treated to date have experienced almost no unpleasant side effects. This, in itself, is wonderful news for those suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In addition, the overall treatment cost will be dramatically lower, compared to traditional therapies, and will help with the national effort to reduce the cost of health care."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires additional testing on the B1 therapy before approval can be granted to offer the drug to the public. During this period, the B1 therapy will be tested on at least 100 new patients in four test sites, one of which will be outside the U.S.

"This is the first in a pipeline of products for cancer therapeutics that we intend to develop," said Bobbie F. Wallace, vice president of Coulter Pharmaceutical. "We are also in the process of acquiring two other significant anti-cancer treatments which Coulter Pharmaceutical will develop and market." She has been involved in biomedical research at Coulter Corporation for 13 years.

Earlier InterWest health care investments have included Cell Genesys, Inc., Foster City, Calif., a biotechnology company committed to the development of novel human therapeutic products based on techniques of cellular genetic engineering; COR Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, which develops unique therapeutic products for the treatment of cardiovascular disease; and TheraTx, Inc., Atlanta, which provides contract rehabilitative therapy services to skilled nursing facilities for geriatric patients.

Coulter Corporation products include hematology and cytometry analyzers plus innovative technologies to assist physicians in making early and accurate diagnosis of such diseases as leukemia, lymphoma and AIDS.

Coulter employs more than 5,000 people and has 17 offices in locations throughout the world.

CONTACT: InterWest Partners

Dr. Arnold Oronsky or Robert R. Momsen, 415/854-8585

or

Coulter Pharmaceutical

Bobbie F. Wallace, 305/380-2543

or

Leger Networks, Inc.

Richard Leger, 415/227-0123