Summit Appoints Dr David Roblin as Chief Operating Officer and President of Research & Development
January 18 2017 - 7:00AM
Summit Therapeutics plc (AIM:SUMM) (NASDAQ:SMMT), the drug
discovery and development company advancing therapies for Duchenne
muscular dystrophy (‘DMD’) and C. difficile infection (‘CDI’),
today announces the appointment of Dr David Roblin as Chief
Operating Officer (‘COO’) and President of Research and
Development. In this new non-board role at Summit, Dr Roblin will
lead R&D and Commercial functions to support the development of
the DMD and CDI programmes. Dr Roblin, who has been acting as a
research and development adviser to Summit since 2014, will take up
his new role on an interim basis in April 2017 with this becoming
full-time in June 2017.
Dr Roblin has had a highly successful career in
the life sciences industry, including senior leadership roles at
Pfizer and Bayer, which involved overseeing the research,
development and commercial launch of drugs across several therapy
areas including infectious diseases. Dr Roblin’s most recent role
was COO and Director of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick
Institute, a London-based biomedical institute dedicated to
understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and
disease.
Mr Glyn Edwards, Chief Executive Officer
of Summit said: “David has had a distinguished career in
the biopharmaceutical industry with over 25 years of experience,
and we are delighted he is committing himself to Summit as COO and
President of R&D. David will be instrumental to Summit as we
continue to advance our two important medicines in DMD and CDI
through late-stage clinical trials.”
“Summit has two strong scientific programmes
with the potential to significantly advance the current standard of
care in their respective disease areas. In CDI, the positive
results from Summit’s Phase 2 proof of concept trial highlight
ridinilazole’s impressive translational medicine story, and in DMD,
we are nearing the first data from our Phase 2 trial of ezutromid
evaluating the mechanism for utrophin modulation,” said Dr
David Roblin. “As we continue to advance both programmes
in the clinic, I look forward to working with the team with the
goal of delivering success for patients and their families, and our
shareholders.”
About Dr David Roblin MBBS, BSc, FRCP,
FFPMDr David Roblin has had an extensive and highly
successful career in the life sciences industry. Dr Roblin held
senior leadership roles at Pfizer and Bayer where he was involved
in research, development and commercialisation. At Pfizer, he was
Head of Research, Site Director and CMO for Europe R&D and he
and his units were responsible for the development of several
important and successful medicines. At Bayer, he was Head of
Therapy Area for Anti-infectives where he was involved in the
successful development of a number of antibiotics, including
Avelox™ and Cipro™. In 2014 Dr Roblin was appointed COO and
Director of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute
in London where he led on establishing the operations of a new
biomedical research institute at a purpose built state-of-the-art
research facility in central London. On stepping down from his
full-time roles, Dr Roblin will become a Senior Scientific
Translation Fellow and Chair of the Translation Advisory Group at
the Francis Crick Institute.
Dr Roblin has been Chief Medical Officer and a
Non-Executive Director to a number of biotech companies. He also
serves on the Major Awards Committee of the Biomedical Catalyst
Fund and of the Confidence in Concept and Proximity to Discovery of
Medical Research Council. He also serves on the LEO Foundation
Prize Committee.
Dr Roblin has a degree in biochemistry from
University College London and later qualified in medicine from St
George's Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.
He is an honorary Professor of Medicine at Swansea University and
Professor of Translational Medicine at St George's. He is a Board
Director of MedCity and Destiny Pharma. Before entering the life
sciences industry, Dr Roblin practised medicine for five years.
About Summit TherapeuticsSummit
is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery,
development and commercialization of novel medicines for
indications for which there are no existing or only inadequate
therapies. Summit is conducting clinical programs focused on the
genetic disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy and the infectious
disease C. difficile infection. Further information is available at
www.summitplc.com and Summit can be followed on Twitter
(@summitplc).
For more information, please
contact:
Summit
Therapeutics Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye
(UK office)Erik Ostrowski / Michelle Avery (US office) |
Tel: +44 (0)1235 443
951 +1 617 225 4455 |
|
|
Cairn Financial
Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser)Liam Murray / Tony
Rawlinson |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7213
0880 |
|
|
N+1
Singer (Broker)Aubrey Powell / Lauren Kettle |
Tel: +44 (0)20
7496 3000 |
|
|
MacDougall
Biomedical Communications(US media contact)Chris Erdman /
Karen Sharma |
Tel: +1 781 235 3060
cerdman@macbiocom.comksharma@macbiocom.com |
|
|
Consilium
Strategic Communications (Financial public relations,
UK)Mary-Jane Elliott / Sue Stuart / Jessica Hodgson / Lindsey
Neville |
Tel: +44 (0)20 3709
5700summit@consilium-comms.com |
Forward Looking StatementsAny
statements in this press release about our future expectations,
plans and prospects, including statements about development and
potential commercialisation of our product candidates, the
therapeutic potential of our product candidates, the timing of
initiation, completion and availability of data from clinical
trials, the potential benefits and future operation of the
collaboration with Sarepta Therapeutics Inc., including any
potential future payments thereunder, any other potential
third-party collaborations and expectations regarding the
sufficiency of our cash balance to fund operating expenses and
capital expenditures, and other statements containing the words
"anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect,"
"intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project,"
"should," "target," "would," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including: the
uncertainties inherent in the initiation of future clinical trials,
availability and timing of data from ongoing and future clinical
trials and the results of such trials, whether preliminary results
from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of
that trial or whether results of early clinical trials will be
indicative of the results of later clinical trials, expectations
for regulatory approvals, availability of funding sufficient for
our foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital
expenditure requirements and other factors discussed in the "Risk
Factors" section of filings that we make with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for
the fiscal year ended 31 January 2016. In addition, any
forward-looking statements included in this press release represent
our views only as of the date of this release and should not be
relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. We
specifically disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements included in this press release.
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