Summit Therapeutics plc Summit Highlights Discovery Of New Mechanism Antibiotics For The Treatment Of Gonorrhoea At Eccmid 2018
April 23 2018 - 6:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMSUMM
Summit Therapeutics plc
("Summit" or the "Company")
Summit Highlights Discovery of a Series of New Mechanism Antibiotics for
the Treatment of Gonorrhoea in Late-Breaking Presentation at ECCMID 2018
Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA, US, 23 April 2018 - 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 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 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 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.
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 / Lindsey Neville
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 2018. 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.
-END-
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Source: Summit Therapeutics plc via Globenewswire
http://www.summitplc.com/
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2018 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
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