Summit Corporation PLC: Summit achieves SMT C1100 Phase 1 dosing milestone that triggers milestone payment

ABINGDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -06/12/12)-

SUMMIT ACHIEVES SMT C1100 PHASE 1 DOSING MILESTONE THAT TRIGGERS MILESTONE PAYMENT

Summit (SUMM.L), a UK drug discovery company, today announced that it has successfully passed a milestone in the Phase 1 trial of SMT C1100 for the treatment of the fatal genetic disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ('DMD'), which triggered the final payment from a $1.5 million funding agreement with US-based DMD organisations.

SMT C1100, an oral small molecule compound, is a potential disease-modifying drug that works by increasing, or upregulating, the amount of a naturally occurring protein called utrophin. The Phase 1 dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers was initiated in May 2012 and will now progress to the stage where participants receive multiple doses. Results from the trial are expected by the end of this year.

The Phase 1 trial is being supported by a group of US-based DMD organisations: the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Charley's Fund, Cure Duchenne, the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne, Nash Avery Foundation and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy.

"We are grateful for the continuing support from the DMD organisations as we make significant progress in the Phase 1 trial of SMT C1100," said Glyn Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Summit. "The funding will enable completion of the Phase 1 trial this year, after which we will seek an appropriate partner to advance SMT C1100 through proof-of-concept studies to ultimately bring this potential breakthrough therapy to patients with DMD."

The Company will be available for partnering discussions at the BIO International Convention June 18-21, 2012, in Boston, MA. In addition, Summit will present at the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Annual Connect Conference June 28-July 1, 2012, in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

SMT C1100 is designed to upregulate and maintain the production of utrophin. Utrophin is a protein that is highly expressed in regenerating muscle, but decreases as the muscle fibre matures and is eventually replaced by dystrophin, a protein that maintains the integrity and healthy function of muscles. Patients with DMD are unable to make dystrophin, resulting in muscle fibre degeneration. However, if utrophin is continually expressed in the mature muscle fibre, it can replace the function of dystrophin and thereby overcome the deficit in patients with DMD.

This approach is expected to be a universal treatment for all DMD patients regardless of whether the disease was caused by an inherited or spontaneous genetic mutation. Summit has demonstrated in non-clinical efficacy studies that SMT C1100 is capable of increasing utrophin to restore and maintain the healthy function of muscles.

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Summit Corporation PLC: Summit achieves SMT C1100 Phase 1 dosing milestone that triggers milestone payment