Summit Therapeutics shares plummet despite positive progress

The AIM-traded firm, focused on Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Clostridium difficile infection, said the findings highlight progress in the development of fully automated quantification techniques for muscle biopsies capable of measuring structural proteins such as utrophin and biomarkers of muscle regeneration.

It said the techniques described are immunohistochemical-based assays and digital tissue image analysis tools that can “robustly measure” utrophin, beta-dystroglycan and developmental myosin - a biomarker of muscle fibre maturity - in individual muscle fibres across a whole biopsy section.

“Our approach to DMD aims to maintain production of utrophin, a protein typically found in young and repairing muscle fibres, so that it can replace the missing dystrophin protein in mature muscle fibres,” said Summit chief medical officer Dr Ralf Rosskamp.

“The development of new, fully automated biomarker tools capable of evaluating the disease status of muscle biopsies will play an important role in clinical trials, including our ongoing PhaseOut DMD trial.

“In this trial, we seek to establish the potential of utrophin modulation, including our most advanced candidate ezutromid, as an effective treatment for all patients with this disease.”

The markets weren’t quite as excited as Summit’s board, however, with the company’s share price down 13.17% to 201p at 1426 BST.