Oxford, UK, 29 June 2012 – Summit (AIM: SUMM), a UK drug discovery company, will today be presenting its SMT C1100 programme for the treatment of the fatal genetic disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (‘DMD’), at the annual Connect Conference, 28 June-1 July in Fort Lauderdale, US. The conference is hosted by the organisation Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (‘PPMD’).
A copy of the presentation is available on request from investors@summitplc.com.
Summit will also participate alongside key clinical investigators and industry representatives in a closed-session panel discussion on the design and implementation of future patient clinical trials.
The Connect meeting has evolved into the largest, most comprehensive international conference focused on DMD and brings together the DMD community with attendees including leading physicians, researchers and families.
About SMT C1100
SMT C1100 is a potential disease-modifying small molecule drug that works by increasing, or upregulating, the amount of a naturally occurring protein called utrophin. Utrophin is a protein that is highly expressed in regenerating muscle, but decreases as the muscle fibre matures and is eventually replaced by dystrophin, a protein that maintains the integrity and healthy function of muscles. Patients with DMD are unable to make dystrophin, resulting in muscle fibre degeneration. However, if utrophin is continually expressed in the mature muscle fibre, it can replace the function of dystrophin and thereby overcome the deficit in patients with DMD.
SMT C1100 is currently in a Phase 1 dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers with results from the trial expected by the end of this year. The trial is supported by a $1.5 million agreement with a group of US-based DMD organisations. Utrophin upregulation is expected to be a universal treatment for all DMD patients regardless of whether the disease was caused by an inherited or spontaneous genetic mutation. Summit has demonstrated in non-clinical efficacy studies that SMT C1100 is capable of increasing utrophin to restore and maintain the healthy function of muscles.
For more information, please contact:
Summit
Glyn Edwards / Richard Pye
Tel: +44 (0)1235 443 939
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
About DMD
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a fatal genetic neuromuscular disorder that affects 1 in 3,500 boys with an estimated patient population of 50,000 in the developed world. The disease is caused by defects in the gene required to make dystrophin, a protein, which maintains the integrity and healthy function of muscles. One in three new cases are due to a spontaneous mutation where there is no familial history of the disease. The progressive muscle wasting begins in early childhood and typically leads to death in the twenties due to cardiac and respiratory failure. Currently there is no cure for the disease.
About Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1994 by parents of children with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy. Our mission is to end Duchenne. We accelerate research, raise our voices in Washington, demand optimal care for all young men, and educate the global community. PPMD is headquartered in Middletown, Ohio with offices in Fort Lee, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.ParentProjectMD.org.
About Summit
Summit is an Oxford, UK based drug discovery Company with an innovative Seglin™ technology platform for the discovery of new medicines and a portfolio of drug programme assets. Summit’s programme portfolio consists of a number of drug programmes targeting high-value areas of unmet medical need including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and C. difficile infection. 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.
