Extension of strategic alliance with Summit
17th November 2015
Summit Therapeutics and Oxford have announced a multi-year extension of their strategic alliance for the development of utrophin modulators to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Oxford University Innovation spinout Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT, AIM: SUMM), the drug discovery and development company advancing therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (‘DMD’) and Clostridium difficile infection, announces a multi-year extension of its exclusive strategic alliance with the University of Oxford until November 2019, with an option to extend it for a further 12 months, to support and accelerate development of future generation utrophin modulators for the treatment of the progressive muscle wasting disorder DMD.
Utrophin protein naturally occurs in all developing muscle fibres and performs a similar functional role as dystrophin. Utrophin modulation aims to maintain the production of this protein to substitute for the missing dystrophin and has the potential to slow or even stop the progression of DMD in all patients with this disease.
“Summit’s strategic alliance with the University of Oxford is an important part of our DMD programme that seeks to discover and develop a strong pipeline of future generation utrophin-based therapies for the treatment of all patients with DMD behind our lead clinical candidate SMT C1100,” commented Glyn Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Summit. “This is an incredibly exciting time for the field of utrophin modulation with SMT C1100 poised to enter a Phase 2 proof of concept trial and the recent publication of positive preclinical efficacy data on our second generation candidates. The extension of this alliance will allow us to invest further in utrophin modulation in partnership with world-leading academic research groups at Oxford and to accelerate the development of future generation molecules towards clinical trials as we seek to maintain our leadership position in this field and potentially allow DMD boys to live longer and more fulfilled lives.”
The strategic alliance is a collaboration between Summit and the research teams of Professor Kay Davies, an internationally acclaimed expert in DMD, Professor Stephen Davies, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a director of Summit, and Professor Angela Russell, an expert in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Oxford. To date, the collaboration has identified a number of new series of utrophin modulator compounds that are structurally distinct from the clinical candidate SMT C1100. Work is on-going towards selection of one or more of these differentiated series for progression into lead optimisation studies.
Linda Naylor, Managing Director of Oxford University Innovation said, “This is great progress from our committed commercial partners who are applying this important Oxford research with the potential to impact many lives for the better.”
Read the full release at Summit’s website.
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