Summit wins multi-million pound drug funding

Summit, a UK drug discovery company, said it had been awarded four million pounds to support clinical development of a new C. difficult antibiotic

The money from charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust will be used to develop Summit's SMT 19969 drug through to clinical proof of concept studies.

News of the award caused the firm's shares to jump as much as 11% in early trading on Monday.

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SMT 19969 is a molecule being developed as an antibiotic for the treatment of infections caused by C. difficult.

Such infections are usually caused by antibiotics themselves, and, as such, most cases happen in a healthcare environment, such as a hospital or care home, according to the NHS.

Summit said the award would provide non-dilutive funding to de-risk its development as the drug advanced through important clinical milestones.

Under the terms of the award, the firm will be eligible for up to £4m in staged, success-based payments.

The company will immediately receive £1.26m that will support a Phase One clinical trial in healthy volunteers and additional non-clinical studies designed to enhance clinical data.

The Phase One trial is expected to start by the end of 2012 with results expected in the first half of 2013.

A successful outcome would trigger a further three payments from the Wellcome Trust with these contributing significantly towards undertaking a Phase Two proof of concept trial in patients, Summit said.