Centessa Pharmaceuticals Appoints David Grainger, PhD, a Leading Biotech Entrepreneur, as Chief Innovation Officer

Industry veteran with decades of experience in company formation, scientific research, and drug development to join executive leadership team to accelerate pipeline potential

BOSTON and LONDON, Oct. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (“Company”) (Nasdaq: CNTA), a clinical-stage company leveraging its innovative asset-centric business model to discover, develop and ultimately deliver impactful medicines to patients, today announced that David Grainger, PhD, has been appointed to the newly-created role of Chief Innovation Officer. Dr. Grainger will be a member of the Company’s executive leadership team and will be responsible for the overall management of the scientific and research activities. Dr. Grainger will work collaboratively with the scientific leadership team in each of the Centessa companies and will provide guidance and insight to the scientific approaches and teams. His responsibilities will also include discovery efforts, playing a pivotal role in defining how therapeutic candidates will be selected and validated for development.

“David has served as a vital partner and advisor to Centessa since the Company’s formation, and we are thrilled he is joining our leadership team in this new capacity,” said Saurabh Saha, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Centessa. “David’s appointment supports our evolution as a company as we prepare for multiple milestones across our clinical stage and pre-clinical programs in the months and years ahead, and his expertise in company formation will be particularly critical as we continue evaluating new candidates for pipeline expansion.”

“I have had the pleasure of supporting Centessa’s early formation, ultimately culminating in a portfolio of 16 programs with truly exquisite biology,” said Dr. Grainger. “I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead and look forward to working closely with each of the companies, the Centessa leadership team, and the Board to drive continued progress and innovation.”

Dr. Grainger joins the Company from Medicxi, where he was a co-founder and served as Chief Scientific Advisor, and will continue in a consulting capacity. He was the Chairman and CEO of several of their portfolio companies and co-founder of The Foundation Institute for 21st Century Medicine. Dr. Grainger has co-founded 28 biotechnology companies over the course of his career.

Previously, Dr. Grainger was a Venture Partner with Index Ventures for four years. Before joining Index, Dr. Grainger founded Funxional Therapeutics and the out-sourced drug developers Total Scientific and RxCelerate. In addition, he led an internationally recognized research group in Cambridge University’s Department of Medicine, where he published more than 80 first author papers in leading journals including Nature, Science and Nature Medicine. Dr. Grainger has written extensively on the subject of optimizing structures for pharmaceutical R&D at both DrugBaron.com and Forbes.com. Dr. Grainger has over 150 patents and patent applications in his name and holds MA and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

About Centessa Pharmaceuticals
Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc aims to bring impactful new medicines to patients by combining the strengths of an asset-centric model with the benefits of scale and diversification typical of larger R&D organizations. The asset-centric model refers to a highly specialized, singular-focused company that is led by a team of well-recognized subject matter experts. Centessa’s asset-centric companies’ programs range from discovery-stage to late-stage development and include diverse therapeutic areas such as oncology, hematology, immunology/inflammation, neuroscience, hepatology, pulmonology and nephrology. For more information, visit www.centessa.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will,” and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any such statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements including statements related to the Company’s ability to deliver impactful medicines to patients; the ability of our key executives to drive execution of the Company’s portfolio of programs; our asset-centric business model and the intended advantages and benefits thereof; research and clinical development plans; the scope, progress, results and costs of developing our product candidates or any other future product candidates; strategy; regulatory matters, including the timing and likelihood of success of obtaining approvals to initiate or continue clinical trials or market any products; market size and opportunity; our ability to complete certain milestones; and our current cash position and runway. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections only as of the date of this release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to our ability to protect and maintain our intellectual property position; business, regulatory, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties, contingencies and assumptions about the Company; risks inherent in developing products and technologies; future results from our ongoing and planned clinical trials; our ability to obtain adequate financing to fund our planned clinical trials and other expenses; trends in the industry; the legal and regulatory framework for the industry; future expenditures risks related to our asset-centric corporate model; the risk that any one or more of our product candidates will not be successfully developed and commercialized; the risk that the results of preclinical studies or clinical studies will not be predictive of future results in connection with future studies; and risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including the effects of the Delta variant. These and other risks concerning our programs and operations are described in additional detail in our registration statement on Form S-1 and our other reports, which are on file with the SEC. We explicitly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.

Contacts: