Summit Corporation Notified of Grant Award From UK Technology Strategy Board
The Biomedical Catalyst was announced by the Prime Minister David Cameron in December 2011 as part of the UK Government’s Life Sciences Strategy. David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes at the Technology Strategy Board, commented: “We are delighted to make these first funding awards through the Biomedical Catalyst, which will help bridge the funding gap between the development of a new idea and investment by the market in a newdrug or technology, and provide effective support for the best life scienceopportunities arising in the UK.”
Glyn Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Summit, added: “Summit’s OGA inhibitor programme has the potential to treat patients suffering from tauopathies, a group of serious neurological disorders that includes Alzheimer’s disease. We are pleased to have been offered this financial support from the UK Government’s Biomedical Catalyst to further support the development of this programme.”
About Tauopathies
The tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases which includes Alzheimer’s disease and a number of rare disorders such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Frontotemporal Dementia.
The tauopathies are characterised by the formation in the brain of neurofibrillary tangles (‘NFTs’) which contribute to the death of nerve cells in the brains of patients and arise due to the aggregation of abnormal hyper-phosphorylated tau protein. The enzyme O-linked N-acetylglucosaminidase (‘OGA’) plays a role in the modulation of tau phosphorylation and its inhibition has the potential to prevent tau aggregation and thereby stop the NFTs from forming.
About the Technology Strategy Board
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth bystimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org.
About Summit
Summit is an Oxford, UK based drugdiscovery Company with a portfolio of drug programme assets and a drug discovery platform called Seglins™ technology. Summit’s programme portfolio consists of a number of drug programmes targeting high-value areas of unmet medical need including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, C. difficile infection and a group of neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies. Summit is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and trades under the ticker symbol SUMM. Further information is available at www.summitplc.com
For more information, please contact:
Summit
Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye
Tel: +44 (0)1235 443 951
Singer Capital Markets
(Nominated Adviser and Joint broker)
Shaun Dobson / Claes Spång
Tel: +44 (0)203 205 7500
Hybridan LLP
(Joint broker)
Claire Louise Noyce / Deepak Reddy
Tel: +44 (0)207 947 4350
Peckwater PR
(Financial public relations, UK)
Tarquin Edwards
Tel: +44 (0)7879 458 364
tarquin.edwards@peckwaterpr.co.uk
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
(U.S. media contact)
Michelle Avery
Tel: +1 781-235-3060
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