Summit Highlights Discovery of a Series of New Mechanism Antibiotics for the Treatment of Gonorrhoea in Late-Breaking Presentation at ECCMID 2018


OXFORD, United Kingdom and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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
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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.

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