SUMM.L Share News (SUMM)

Drug discovery and development company Summit Therapeutics posted a 52.6% widening in its first-quarter pre-tax loss, pointing to the cost of listing on the NASDAQ and higher research and development costs.The pre-tax losses came in at $5.8m compared with $3.8m in the same period last year.In the three months ended 30 April 2015, the company completed enrolment in its Phase 1b modified diet clinical trial of SMT C11100. The group said it plans to initiate a Phase 2 open label clinical trial of the drug in the second half of this year and a randomised placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial in early 2016.Chief executive officer Glyn Edwards said: "During the first quarter, we substantially expanded our shareholder base with a successful NASDAQ listing, which has provided significant support for the on-going patient clinical trials of our lead product candidates for the treatment of DMD and CDI.""We look forward to reporting data from these studies as we seek to establish the potential of our two programmes as life-changing treatments," he added.At 12:45, shares were down 0.2% at 135.75p.