Summit Therapeutics plc Summit Highlighted Potential Of Smt-571 To Combat The Rising Global Health Threat Of Gonorrhoea At St...
17 July 2019 - 9:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMSUMM
Summit Therapeutics plc
('Summit' or the 'Company')
Summit Highlighted Potential of SMT-571 to Combat the Rising Global
Health Threat of Gonorrhoea at STI & HIV World Congress
Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA, US, 17 July 2019 -- Summit Therapeutics
plc (NASDAQ: SMMT, AIM: SUMM) today announced that it highlighted the
potential of its preclinical new class antibiotic, SMT-571, to treat all
gonorrhoea, including multi-drug and extensively-drug resistant strains,
in a poster presentation at the STI & HIV World Congress in Vancouver,
Canada.
"The problem of gonorrhoea resistance is very concerning, and if nothing
is done, physicians could see more and more cases of untreatable disease,
" said Dr David Roblin, President of R&D of Summit. "As shown by the
preclinical data presented, our gonorrhoea-targeted new class antibiotic,
SMT-571, has the potential to overcome known resistance mechanisms
across global isolates, including multi- and extensively-drug resistant
strains. Further, there is a clear need for new gonorrhoea treatment
options that would allow ceftriaxone to be reserved for the multitude of
other serious infections that rely on its potency."
Infections caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae are a growing
global healthcare problem, with an estimated 78 million new cases
globally per year. Infection rates continue to rise sharply as
highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ('CDC'),
which reported a 19% increase in US gonorrhoea cases in 2017, and Public
Health England, which reported a 26% increase in the UK in 2018. Of
great concern is the increase in resistance towards the current standard
of care treatment for gonorrhoea, a combination of the broad-spectrum
antibiotics, azithromycin and ceftriaxone. N. gonorrhoeae resistance
rates to azithromycin are 4.4% and rising, and there is an emergence of
resistance to ceftriaxone in these same strains, which are referred to
as cases of 'super gonorrhoea.'
Summit's poster featured preclinical data showing SMT-571 to be highly
potent against 262 clinical strains of N. gonorrhoeae. This
comprehensive panel of gonorrhoea strains, obtained from 1991 to 2018,
was selected to be geographically and genetically diverse and include
strains that are multi- and extensively-drug resistant. SMT-571 had a
minimum inhibitory concentration range of 0.064 mg/L to 0.125 mg/L
against the strains, including those with reduced susceptibility to
ceftriaxone. Significantly, SMT-571 did not show cross-resistance with
any antibiotic currently or previously used to treat gonorrhoea
infections.
A copy of the poster is available on the Company's website:
https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=hOwNpcVnH5ygYcPnItIIj3teosjDaNu3IshgbQPXqvAjgI1b0GLRE8kvTumrR7L-4AKVAssBT22nbf_MLgKdjbs_Rglaa0doF0rBkCuQegs=
www.summitplc.com.
About Gonorrhoea
It is estimated by the World Health Organization ('WHO') that there are
approximately 78 million new cases of gonorrhoea globally per year.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae has consistently developed resistance to each
class of antibiotics recommended for treatment and there is now only one
treatment recommended by the CDC and European evidence-based guidelines,
a combination of two antibiotics. There are currently no other
recommended antibiotics that can be effectively deployed to target the
disease. The WHO ranks as "high" the priority of R&D investment into the
search for antibiotics which are effective against N. gonorrhoeae and in
August 2018, the CDC stated that in light of increased problems with
resistance, additional treatment options were urgently required.
About SMT-571
SMT-571 is a small molecule, new class antibiotic in preclinical
development for the treatment of gonorrhoea. SMT-571 is designed to be
an oral treatment with potential activity across the three sites of
gonorrhoea infection: urogenital, rectal and pharyngeal. Preclinical
studies have shown SMT-571 to have potent activity across a wide range
of N. gonorrhoeae strains, including multi-drug and extensively-drug
resistant isolates. SMT-571 was identified using Summit's Discuva
Platform, which can identify novel targets, elucidate mechanisms of
action and optimise against bacterial resistance.
The development of SMT-571 is supported by the Cooperative Agreement
Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by an award from Wellcome Trust,
as administered by CARB-X. The content of this announcement is solely
the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the
official views of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of
the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, other funders, or
CARB-X.
About Summit Therapeutics
Summit Therapeutics is a leader in antibiotic innovation. Our new
mechanism antibiotics are designed to become the new standards of care
for the benefit of patients and create value for payors and healthcare
providers. We are currently developing new mechanism antibiotics for
infections caused by C. difficile, N. gonorrhoeae and Enterobacteriaceae
and are using our proprietary Discuva Platform to expand our pipeline.
For more information, visit www.summitplc.com and follow us on Twitter
@summitplc.
Contacts
Summit
Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye (UK office) Tel: 44 (0)1235 443 951
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, Corporate
Finance
Tom Salvesen, Corporate Broking
Bryan Garnier & Co Limited (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7332 2500
Phil Walker / Dominic Wilson
MSL Group (US) Tel: +1 781 684 6557
mailto:summit@mslgroup.com
Jon Siegal summit@mslgroup.com
---------------------------------
Consilium Strategic Communications (UK) Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 5700
Mary-Jane Elliott / Sue Stuart / Sukaina mailto:summit@consilium-comms.com
Virji summit@consilium-comms.com
---------------------------------
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 and funding awards, 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 2019. 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-
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2019 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
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