Summit Therapeutics plc Summit Appoints Dr David Roblin As Chief Operating Officer And President Of Research & Development

 
TIDMSUMM 
 
   Summit Therapeutics plc 
 
   ('Summit', 'Company' or the 'Group') 
 
   SUMMIT APPOINTS DR DAVID ROBLIN AS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND PRESIDENT 
OF RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 
 
   Oxford, UK, 18 January 2017 - 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, FFPM 
 
   Dr 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(TM) and Cipro(TM). 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 Therapeutics 
 
   Summit 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 https://twitter.com/Summitplc ). 
 
   For more information, please contact: 
 
 
 
 
Summit Therapeutics 
 Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye (UK office)         Tel: [phone] 
 Erik Ostrowski / Michelle Avery (US office)    [phone] 
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP 
 (Nominated Adviser)                            Tel: [phone] 
 Liam Murray / Tony Rawlinson 
N+1 Singer 
 (Broker)                                       Tel: [phone] 
 Aubrey Powell / Lauren Kettle 
MacDougall Biomedical Communications 
 (US media contact)                            Tel: [phone] 
 Chris Erdman / Karen Sharma                   [e-mail] [e-mail] 
Consilium Strategic Communications 
 (Financial public relations, UK)              Tel: [phone] 
 Mary-Jane Elliott / Sue Stuart /              [e-mail] 
 Jessica Hodgson / Lindsey Neville 
 
   Forward Looking Statements 
 
   Any 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. 
 
   -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

January 18, 2017 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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