Summit Therapeutics plc Summit's Infectious Diseases Technology Platform Yields Novel Antibiotics With Potential In Global Fi...

 
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:           [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 
 
   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)

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