Summit Corp plc - Awarded £2.2m from The Wellcome Trust
11 Dec 2009
* Funding to develop Summit's C. difficile
infectious disease programme
Oxford, UK, 11 December 2009 - Summit Corporation plc (AIM: SUMM)
today announces that it has been awarded GBP2.2 million from the
Wellcome Trust to fund the development of the Company's infectious
disease programme targeting C. difficile, a bacteria that is posing
a significant and growing healthcare threat.
The award is made through the Wellcome Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative and provides over two years of funding to develop Summit's programme through until the end of preclinical development.
Following today's award, Summit's C. difficile programme becomes part of the Company's expanded Partnered Product Portfolio that now comprises eight drug programmes. This portfolio requires no further investment from Summit but has contractual, success based regulatory and sales milestones worth over $160m plus sales royalties. In addition, Summit retains significant territory rights in some of the programmes, including C. difficile, which ensures the Company can benefit from future commercial agreements signed in these programmes.
Steven Lee, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of
Summit, said, "This GBP2.2 million
award from The Wellcome Trust endorses Summit's scientific
expertise in the area of infectious diseases.Our C. difficile
programme targets a significant and growing healthcare threat and
the two years of funding will act as a potential value driver for
the business as the programme is developed into a valuable
commercial opportunity."
About Clostridium difficile
The bacteria
Clostridium difficile has emerged as a significant healthcare
threat with approximately 50,000 cases per annum reported in the UK
and an estimated 500,000 cases in the US. Mortality rates in
the UK due to C. difficile infection are four times higher than
infections due to MRSA. In addition hyper-virulent strains are now
endemic in Europe and the US, with these strains being associated
with more severe disease and higher mortality rates. In the US, the
cost of care for C. difficile is estimated at $1.1 billion
per
annum. Therapy options remain limited with most common antibiotic
treatments actually inducing C. difficile infection.
Summit's early-stage programme has identified a novel class of
small molecule compounds that have an attractive profile as a
potential new therapy for the treatment of C. difficile. Early
stage in vitro studies have shown the compounds inhibit the growth
of C. difficile, but crucially, are highly selective for this
bacterium. This is a highly desirable property for any new
treatment as it will help the normal, healthy balance of gut flora
to re-establish whilst selectively killing the C. difficile
bacteria. In addition, the compounds display activity
against the hyper-virulent strains.
Using the Wellcome Trust funding, the next stage of development is to establish proof of concept in the gold-standard in vivo model and also undertake studies to establish the mode of action for this novel set of compounds.
For more information, please contact:
Summit
Steven Lee, PhD
Richard Pye, PhD
Tel: +44 (0)1235 443939
Singer Capital markets
Shaun
Dobson
Claes Spång
Tel: +44 (0)20 3205 7500
About Summit plc
Summit plc is a UK based
drug discovery company with a major focus on developing new
therapeutics from its iminosugar drug discovery platform. Summit
believes iminosugars are the key to gaining access to several
disease mechanisms where classical drug candidates have had little
success, and therefore offer a major opportunity for the discovery
and development of new medicines.
Carbohydrates play critical roles in maintaining correct function of many normal processes in healthy individuals and provide a wealth of new targets for drug discovery. Iminosugars have the capability of accessing such targets and offer the potential of generating new medicines in a variety of major therapy areas. Summit is currently focussed on metabolic diseases, including diabetes, and anti-virals.
Commercially, Summit has a track record of signing programme agreements and currently has an out-licensed product portfolio comprising of seven drug programmes with BioMarin, Orient Pharma, Evolva and the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative. In the future these programmes may generate success based milestone payments and royalties for Summit.
The company listed on the alternative investment market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 - symbol: SUMM. Further information about the company is available at www.summitplc.com.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome
Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative
biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over
GBP600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with
the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about
biomedical research and its impact on health
and wellbeing www.wellcome.ac.uk.
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