LONDON (Alliance News) - Summit Corporation PLC Monday said it has entered a strategic alliance with the University of Oxford that will strengthen its utrophin modulator programme for the treatment of the fatal muscle wasting disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Under the deal, Summit will acquire exclusive commercial rights to a pipeline of novel, early-stage utrophin modulators and core biological screening technology, and an exclusive option to intellectual property that is related to the utrophin field generated during the alliance.
As part of the collaboration, Summit will also sponsor a drug discovery programme in the University research laboratories to identify and develop additional utrophin modulator drugs.
"Utrophin protein naturally occurs in all developing muscle fibres and performs a similar functional role as dystrophin. Utrophin modulation aims to maintain the production of this protein to compensate for the loss of dystrophin and it has the promise to slow or even stop the progression of DMD, regardless of the underlying genetic mutation," Professor Kay Davies of Oxford University said in a statement.
"The alliance provides access to differentiated classes of utrophin modulators, potentially with new mechanisms, to complement our clinical candidate SMT C1100, while also establishing a strong drug pipeline for the future," Summit Chief Executive Glyn Edwards said in a statement.
Summit Corp shares were up 7.7% at 9.975 pence Monday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1
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