Summit Therapeutics plc Summit's Infectious Diseases Technology Platform Yields Novel Antibiotics With Potential In Global Fi...
March 13 2018 - 7:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMSUMM
Summit Therapeutics plc
("Summit" or the "Company")
Summit's Infectious Diseases Technology Platform Yields Novel
Antibiotics with Potential in Global Fight Against Gonorrhoea
Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA, US, 13 March 2018 - Summit Therapeutics
plc (NASDAQ: SMMT, AIM: SUMM) announces the discovery of a series of
antibiotic compounds that kill gonorrhoea bacteria via new mechanisms of
action. There is a pressing need for novel antibiotics targeting
gonorrhoea due to increasing antibiotic resistance and a lack of new
treatments. Gonorrhoea has been identified as one of three urgent
threats by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ('CDC'),
and a high priority pathogen by the World Health Organisation ('WHO').
"Without truly novel mechanism antibacterial drugs we cannot address the
issue of antimicrobial resistance. Nowhere is this need more obvious
than in gonorrhoea, where increasing resistance and a lack of innovation
means we are now nearing an era of untreatable disease," said Dr David
Roblin, President of R&D of Summit. "Tackling this disease therefore
fits squarely within Summit's strategic vision: the development of new
mechanism therapies designed to treat specific diseases. This approach
aims to demonstrate clear advantages over existing standards of care
combined with a compelling value proposition for patients, payors and
healthcare providers."
In early testing, the new series of antibiotic compounds has been shown
to have high potency against strains of gonorrhoea with no development
of resistance to date. The series of antibiotic compounds was identified
using Summit's recently acquired technology platform. Summit intends to
select a candidate from the gonorrhoea programme for entering into IND
enabling studies in the second half of 2018. The Company believes the
identified series of antibiotic compounds has the potential to produce a
new front-line therapy for gonorrhoea.
Dr Roblin added, "We believe that these data demonstrate the power of
our recently acquired technology platform to design and generate a
pipeline of new mechanism antibiotics. This combines perfectly with our
development capabilities and expertise already built in advancing
ridinilazole, our late-stage precision antibiotic for C. difficile
infection."
About Gonorrhoea
It is estimated by the WHO that there are approximately 106 million new
cases of gonorrhoea globally per year. The US CDC reported in 2013 that
30% of new cases are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics
currently used to treat gonorrhoea. Further the organism responsible for
this infectious disease, Neisseria gonorrhoea, has consistently
developed resistance to each class of antibiotics recommended for
treatment. In 2006, the CDC recommended five treatment options. There is
now only one treatment recommended by the CDC, a combination of two
antibiotics. There are currently no other approved antibiotics that can
be effectively deployed to target the disease.
About Summit's Technology Platform
The Summit infectious diseases technology platform combines transposon
technology and bioinformatics to create and screen compounds against
proprietary pathogen libraries. It can be used to identify new bacterial
targets, elucidate mechanisms of action and help generate potential
antibiotic candidates that are less susceptible to resistance
development. The platform was obtained as part of the acquisition of
Discuva Limited in December 2017.
About Summit Therapeutics
Summit is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery,
development and commercialisation of novel medicines for indications in
rare and infectious diseases for which there are no existing or only
inadequate therapies. Summit is conducting clinical programmes 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).
Contacts
Summit
Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye (UK office) Tel: 44 (0)1235 443 951
Erik Ostrowski / Michelle Avery (US office) +1 617 225 4455
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated
Adviser) Tel: +44 (0)20 7213 0880
Liam Murray / Tony Rawlinson
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7496 3000
Aubrey Powell / Jen Boorer
Panmure Gordon (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 2500
Freddy Crossley, Corporate Finance
Tom Salvesen, Corporate Broking
MacDougall Biomedical Communications (US) Tel: +1 781 235 3060
Karen Sharma ksharma@macbiocom.com
Consilium Strategic Communications (UK) Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 5700
Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson / summit@consilium-comms.com
Philippa Gardner
Summit Forward-looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about the Company's future
expectations, plans and prospects, including but not limited to,
statements about the clinical and preclinical development of the
Company's product candidates, the therapeutic potential of the Company's
product candidates, the potential commercialisation of the Company's
product candidates, the sufficiency of the Company's cash resources, the
timing of initiation, completion and availability of data from clinical
trials, the potential submission of applications for marketing approvals
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 or preclinical
studies will be indicative of the results of later clinical trials,
expectations for regulatory approvals, laws and regulations affecting
government contracts, availability of funding sufficient for the
Company's foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital
expenditure requirements and other factors discussed in the "Risk
Factors" section of filings that the Company makes with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form
20-F for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2017. Accordingly, readers
should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or
information. In addition, any forward-looking statements included in
this press release represent the Company's views only as of the date of
this release and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's
views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements included in this
press release.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 (MAR).
-END-
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf
of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information
contained therein.
Source: Summit Therapeutics plc via Globenewswire
http://www.summitplc.com/
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 13, 2018 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Summit Therapeutics (LSE:SUMM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Summit Therapeutics (LSE:SUMM)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024