Summit Corporation, a UK drug discovery company, has achieved a milestone in the Phase 1 trial of SMT C1100, an oral small molecule compound, for the treatment of the fatal genetic disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).
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Following this achievement, Summit will receive the final payment from a $1.5m funding agreement with US based DMD organizations.
Summit chief executive officer Glyn Edwards said, "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."
SMT C1100 is a potential disease-modifying drug that works by increasing, or upregulating, the amount of a naturally occurring protein called utrophin.
Initiated in May 2012 in healthy volunteers, the Phase 1 dose-escalation study will now progress to the stage where participants receive multiple doses.
A group of US-based DMD organizations, which include the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Charley’s Fund, Cure Duchenne, the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne, Nash Avery Foundation and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, supported the Phase 1 trial.
The company is expecting the results from the trial by the end of 2012.