Summit Highlights Discovery of a Series of New Mechanism Antibiotics for the Treatment of Gonorrhoea in Late-Breaking Present...
April 23 2018 - 6:00AM
Summit Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:SMMT) (AIM:SUMM) announces it
highlighted the discovery of new mechanism antibiotic candidates
for the treatment of gonorrhoea in a late-breaking presentation at
the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases (‘ECCMID 2018’) in Madrid, Spain.
Gonorrhoea is an area of high unmet medical need
with only one treatment option recommended by the US Centres for
Disease Control. It has also been identified as a priority pathogen
by the World Health Organisation, cited on a list of bacteria
deemed to pose the greatest risk to human health. The pressing need
for novel, effective antibiotics for gonorrhoea is driving Summit’s
discovery and development efforts around a series of new mechanism
antibiotics as potential front-line treatments for this
infection.
In the data presented, the series was shown to
have a number of key characteristics that could drive their
front-line use. These include high potency against a range of
gonorrhoea strains, including ones that were multi-drug resistant,
high selectivity for gonorrhoea which minimizes collateral damage
to the microbiome, a low potential for resistance development, and
suitability for oral administration. Summit intends to select a
candidate to enter IND enabling studies in the second half of
2018.
“Our strategy to tackle difficult to treat
bacterial infections, such as gonorrhoea, is clear: to develop new
mechanism antibiotics that are genuinely innovative treatment
options with the potential to replace existing standards of care,”
said Dr David Roblin, President of R&D of
Summit. “We are encouraged by the profile of the series of
gonorrhoea antibiotic candidates developed using our proprietary
genetics-based discovery platform, and we look forward to selecting
a preclinical candidate in the second half of this year.”
The presentation was authored by Elena B.M.
Breidenstein, Tim Avis, Nawaz Khan, Paul Meo and Clive S. Mason of
Summit. The series of new mechanism antibiotic compounds was
identified using Summit’s bacterial genetics-based discovery and
development platform. The platform enables the development of new
mechanism antibiotics and an early assessment of the resistance
liabilities, which allows for the prioritisation of the best
compounds for optimisation and clinical development.
A copy of the presentation is available in the
Publications section of Summit’s website, www.summitplc.com.
About GonorrhoeaIt 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 gonorrhoeae, 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 Genetics-Based Discovery
and Development PlatformThe 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.
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
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Karen
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ksharma@macbiocom.com |
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summit@consilium-comms.com |
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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 2018. Accordingly, readers should not place
undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. In
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