Summit Therapeutics widens loss as drug development continues

15th Dec 2016 12:38

(ShareCast News) - Drug discovery and development company Summit Therapeutics posted its financial results for the third quarter to 31 October on Thursday.The AIM-traded firm had cash and cash equivalents at period end of £34.6m compared to £16.3m on 31 January.Its loss for the nine months was £16.4m, slightly wider than the adjusted £13m for the nine months to 31 October 2015."During the third quarter, we strengthened our DMD programme by entering into an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics, granting European rights to our utrophin modulator pipeline, including our lead candidate, ezutromid," said chief executive Glyn Edwards."This collaboration gives us access to Sarepta's DMD development, regulatory and commercial expertise, while strengthening our financial position with global research and development cost sharing and the potential for future milestones."Edwards said the board ultimately believed that combining its strengths through the collaboration could help to bring utrophin modulators to market, where Summit has the potential to benefit all patients."PhaseOut DMD, our Phase 2 proof of concept trial of ezutromid, is enrolling now in the UK and the US, and we are on track to report data from the first group of 24-week biopsies in the second or third quarter of 2017."These biopsies have the potential to demonstrate proof of mechanism for ezutromid through a change in the pattern of utrophin expression from baseline and an association of utrophin with mature muscle fibres - a phenomenon that we expect would only occur with drug treatment."The trial was expected to evaluate the F3 and F6 formulations of ezutromid that Edwards said both have the potential to modulate utrophin over a wide range of exposures that could help the company to maximise safety and efficacy in patients over longer-term dosing."With our CDI programme, we continue preparations for Phase 3 trials of ridinilazole, a novel antibiotic with potential as a front-line treatment for patients suffering from this serious bacterial infection."We look forward to a productive 2017 with both programmes."