LIESTAL, Switzerland, OXFORD, England and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 06, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX:SANN), Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SMMT) (AIM:SUMM), Catabasis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CATB) and Duchenne UK are pleased to announce a collaboration to host a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Awareness Day today in London.
The half-day event will feature presentations by key opinion leaders representing clinical practitioners, industry professionals and the patient group Duchenne UK. Professor Dame Kay Davies FRS of the University of Oxford, Dr Rosaline Quinlivan MD of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Professor Thomas Voit MD of Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London will deliver keynote addresses focusing on the biology and aetiology of the disease, and the current treatment landscape.
The sponsoring companies will also present on their respective development programmes for new therapeutic options for DMD and the future outlook for patients.
Emily Crossley, Co-Founder and joint Chief Executive Officer of Duchenne UK, and Chair of the event, commented: “We are excited to be taking part in this comprehensive DMD awareness day. Duchenne UK is committed to working globally with industry to fund and accelerate drug development, and is delighted to be publicly collaborating with innovative companies such as Summit, Santhera and Catabasis. We are united in our mission to end Duchenne, and this event will raise much-needed awareness about this disease and highlight the growing pipeline of potentially life-changing treatments.”
A live audio webcast of the event will be available at the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/nacwa6fn. A replay will be available on the supporting companies’ websites the day after the event.
For further information of the event, please contact:
DMDevent@consilium-comms.com
+44 (0)20 3709 5700
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About Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is the most common fatal genetic disease diagnosed in childhood. Children born with DMD cannot produce the protein dystrophin which is vital for muscle strength and function. Muscle weakness starts in early childhood. Many use a wheelchair by around the age of 12. As deterioration continues it leads to paralysis and early death, often in their 20s. It almost exclusively affects boys. There is no treatment or cure. In the UK there are around 2,500 boys affected and around 300, 000 worldwide. It is classified as a rare disease.
About Catabasis
At Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, our mission is to bring hope and life-changing therapies to patients and their families. Our SMART (Safely Metabolized And Rationally Targeted) Linker drug discovery platform enables us to engineer molecules that simultaneously modulate multiple targets in a disease. We are applying our SMART LinkerSM platform to build an internal pipeline of product candidates for rare diseases and plan to pursue partnerships to develop additional product candidates. For more information on the Company's drug discovery platform and pipeline of drug candidates, please visit www.catabasis.com.
About Duchenne UK
Duchenne UK is a lean, ambitious and highly focused charity with a clear vision: to fund and accelerate treatments and a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The charity has been formed by the coming together of Joining Jack and Duchenne Children's Trust, the two biggest funders of research in the UK in the last three years. Its president is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. Its patrons include the broadcasters Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Mary Nightingale, and the sports stars Owen Farrell, Kris Radlinski and Andy Farrell.
About Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX:SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical products for the treatment of orphan mitochondrial and neuromuscular diseases. Santhera's lead product Raxone® (idebenone) is authorized in the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Israel for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). For Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Santhera has filed a Marketing Authorization Application in the European Union and Switzerland for DMD patients with respiratory function decline who are not taking glucocorticoids. In collaboration with the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Santhera is developing Raxone® in a third indication, primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), and another product – omigapil – for congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD), both also areas of high unmet medical need. For further information, please visit the Company's website www.santhera.com.
About Summit Therapeutics
Summit is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialisation of novel medicines for indications for which there are no existing or only inadequate therapies. Summit is conducting clinical programs focused on the genetic disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and the infectious disease, Clostridium difficile infection. Further information is available at www.summitplc.com and Summit can be followed on Twitter (@summitplc).
Contact information:
Santhera Pharmaceuticals
Sue Schneidhorst, Head Group Communications
Europe: +41 61 906 89 26
US: +1 646 586 2113
Summit Therapeutics
Richard Pye, Senior Director, Corporate Affairs & Communications
+44 (0)1235 443 951
Catabasis® Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Andrea Matthews, Vice President, Corporate Affairs
+1 617 349 1971
amatthews@catabasis.com
Consilium Strategic Communications
Amber Fennell, Jessica Hodgson, Sukaina Virji
+44 (0)20 3709 5700
DMDevent@consilium-comms.com