Summit Therapeutics plc Summit Highlights Discovery Of New Mechanism Antibiotics For The Treatment Of Gonorrhoea At Eccmid 2018

 
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:           [phone] 
Erik Ostrowski / Michelle Avery (US office)                    [phone] 
 
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated 
 Adviser)                                    Tel:          [phone] 
Liam Murray / Tony Rawlinson 
 
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker)                    Tel:          [phone] 
Aubrey Powell / Jen Boorer 
 
Panmure Gordon (Joint Broker)                Tel:          [phone] 
Freddy Crossley, Corporate Finance 
Tom Salvesen, Corporate Broking 
 
MacDougall Biomedical Communications (US)    Tel:              [phone] 
Karen Sharma                                             [e-mail] 
 
Consilium Strategic Communications (UK)      Tel:          [phone] 
Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson /               [e-mail] 
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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   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

April 23, 2018 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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