Summit Highlights Use of Discuva Platform in Identifying New Mechanism Antibiotics against Neisseria Gonorrhoeae and ESKAPE Pathogens at Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics 2019 Conference

Summit Therapeutics plc 
(‘Summit’ or the ’Company’)

Summit Highlights Use of Discuva Platform in Identifying New Mechanism Antibiotics against Neisseria Gonorrhoeae and ESKAPE Pathogens at Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics 2019 Conference

• N. Gonorrhoeae and ESKAPE Pathogens Identified as High Priority by the US CDC and the WHO

Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA, US, 14 March 2019 – Summit Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: SMMT, AIM: SUMM), a leader in new mechanism antibiotic innovation, today announces two presentations highlighting the potential of the Company’s Discuva Platform to identify new mechanism antibiotics for serious infectious diseases. The presentations are being made at Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics 2019, which is being held in Berlin, Germany, 14-15 March. Several programmes of new mechanism antibiotics have emerged from the Discuva Platform, including one targeting gonorrhoea and another targeting ESKAPE pathogens, both of which are being discussed at the conference.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have listed Neisseria gonorrhoeae and ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp.) as high priority targets which urgently need new antibiotics due to increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance (‘AMR’). New mechanism antibiotics are an important component of the global fight against AMR.

“AMR is a worldwide problem. We need to see scientific innovation to prevent an era of untreatable infections,” said Dr David Roblin, President of R&D of Summit. “Through the Discuva Platform, we are using novel science to create targeted, new mechanism antibiotics that are optimised against resistance development. Our goal is to develop the most appropriate drug for a specific patient, thereby improving patient outcomes and giving physicians options to address the spread of AMR.”

The presentations cover the discovery and early development of new mechanism antibiotics enabled by the Discuva Platform within Summit’s gonorrhoea and ESKAPE programmes. These programmes exemplify the Platform’s ability to identify new antibiotics against new targets, uncover mechanisms of action and optimise screened compounds against potential resistance liabilities. Each of the Platform’s capabilities rely on Summit’s proprietary bacterial libraries, which allow exquisite genome-wide control of bacterial gene expression via engineered transposons.

Details of the Company’s lead ESKAPE programme and further research on SMT-571, the Company’s lead gonorrhoea candidate, will be presented at upcoming medical meetings.

About Summit Therapeutics
Summit Therapeutics is a leader in antibiotic innovation. Our new mechanism antibiotics are designed to become the new standards of care for the benefit of patients and create value for payors and healthcare providers. We are currently developing new mechanism antibiotics for infections caused by C. difficile, N. gonorrhoeae and ESKAPE pathogens and are using our proprietary Discuva Platform to expand our pipeline. For more information, visit www.summitplc.com and follow us on Twitter @summitplc.

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