Summit to Present on Pipeline and Strategy for its New Classes of Antibiotics at ASM Microbe 2019

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

Summit to Present on Pipeline and Strategy for its New Classes of Antibiotics at ASM Microbe 2019

Oxford, UK, and Cambridge, MA, US, 20 June 2019 – Summit Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: SMMT, AIM: SUMM) today announced that it will present on its pipeline and strategy for the Company’s new classes of antibiotics at the American Society for Microbiology Microbe conference taking place 20-24 June 2019 in San Francisco, CA.

“Developing new classes of antibiotics is critical to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. One of our new class antibiotics, SMT-571, has the potential to treat gonorrhoea, an urgent healthcare threat with increasing numbers of cases alongside the spread of drug resistant infections. In preclinical data being presented at ASM Microbe, SMT-571 demonstrated the ability to readily kill bacteria which have become extensively resistant to antibiotics already on the market,” said Dr David Roblin, President of R&D of Summit. “With truly novel antibiotics, we believe we are well placed to execute development strategies that have the potential to demonstrate significant advantages over current standards of care, both in terms of improving patient outcomes and in reducing healthcare costs.”

Details of the presentations are as follows:

Date: 21 June 2019
Time: 2:52-3:03pm PDT
Session: Pharma Pipeline Update: Part I
Location: AAR Track Hub (Booth 5053) – Learn – Exhibit and Poster Hall 3
Summary: Summit has a unique three-pronged strategy in infectious diseases aimed at creating a successful, fully-integrated company. The Company focuses on new science to discover new classes of antibiotics targeted to treat specific infections. Summit’s pipeline currently contains late-stage clinical and preclinical programmes for infections caused by C. difficile, N. gonorrhoeae and Enterobacteriaceae, and the Company’s Discuva Platform enables the expansion of this pipeline. Summit designs creative development programmes aimed to show significant advantages over current standards of care. Finally, Summit looks to achieve commercial success by demonstrating both clinical and economic advantages of its antibiotics over currently available treatments.

Date: 23 June 2019
Time: 10:30am-4:00pm PDT
Session: New Antimicrobial Agents (pre-phase 2): Inhibitors for Novel Targets (1)
Location: Exhibit and Poster Hall P589
Title: In Vitro Activity of SMT-571 and Comparators against Clinical Isolates and Reference Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Authors: P. Meo, C. Mason, N. Khan, of Summit Therapeutics and M. Unemo and S. Jacobsson of Örebro University
Summary: Preclinical data showed SMT-571 to be highly potent against 262 clinical strains of N. gonorrhoeae. This comprehensive panel of gonorrhoea strains, obtained from 1991 to 2018, was designed to be geographically and genetically diverse and include strains that are extensively- and multi-drug resistant, including ones resistant to ceftriaxone, the current standard of care for gonorrhoea. SMT-571, which works by a new mechanism of action targeting cell-division, was shown to be equally potent against all strains tested. It had a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.064 to 0.125 mg/L against the strains, including those that are not susceptible to ceftriaxone. Significantly, SMT-571 did not show cross-resistance with any antibiotic currently or previously used to treat gonorrhoea infections.

A copy of the presentations will be available at the start of the sessions in the Publications section of the Company’s website: www.summitplc.com.

About Gonorrhoea
It is estimated by the World Health Organization (‘WHO’) that there are approximately 78 million new cases of gonorrhoea globally per year. Neisseria gonorrhoeae has consistently developed resistance to each class of antibiotics recommended for treatment and there is now only one treatment recommended by the CDC and European evidence-based guidelines, a combination of two antibiotics. There are currently no other recommended antibiotics that can be effectively deployed to target the disease. The WHO ranks as “High” the priority of R&D investment into the search for antibiotics which are effective against N. gonorrhoeae and in August 2018, the CDC stated that in light of increased problems with resistance, additional treatment options were urgently required.

About SMT-571
SMT-571 is a small molecule, novel mechanism antibiotic in preclinical development for the treatment of gonorrhoea. SMT-571 is designed to be an oral treatment with potential activity across the three sites of gonorrhea infection: urogenital, rectal and pharyngeal. Preclinical studies have shown SMT-571 to have potent activity across a wide range of N. gonorrhoeae strains, including multi- and extensively-drug resistant ones. SMT-571 was identified using Summit’s Discuva Platform, which can identify novel targets, elucidate mechanisms of action and optimise against bacterial resistance.

The development of SMT-571 is supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by an award from Wellcome Trust, as administered by CARB-X. The content of this announcement is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, other funders, or CARB-X.

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 Enterobacteriaceae 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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Any statements in this press release about the Company’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including but not limited to, statements about the clinical and preclinical development of the Company’s product candidates, the therapeutic potential of the Company’s product candidates, the potential commercialisation of the Company’s product candidates, the sufficiency of the Company’s cash resources, the timing of initiation, completion and availability of data from clinical trials, the potential submission of applications for marketing approvals and other statements containing the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "would," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the uncertainties inherent in the initiation of future clinical trials, availability and timing of data from ongoing and future clinical trials and the results of such trials, whether preliminary results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of that trial or whether results of early clinical trials or preclinical studies will be indicative of the results of later clinical trials, expectations for regulatory approvals, laws and regulations affecting government contracts and funding awards, availability of funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of filings that the Company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2019. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. In addition, any forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements included in this press release.

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