Centessa Pharmaceuticals Announces Poster Presentation of First Preclinical Data for LockBody® Program at 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

BOSTON and LONDON, June 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: CNTA), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company with a Research & Development (“R&D”) innovation engine that aims to discover, develop and ultimately deliver impactful medicines to patients, today announced presentation of the first preclinical data for LB101, PD-L1xCD47 LockBody, in a poster presentation at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting which is taking place virtually and in person from June 3-7, 2022 in Chicago, IL. The poster presentation will be featured in the Developmental Therapeutics – Immunotherapy session today, June 5, 2022, at 8-11 AM CT.

“We are excited to release the first preclinical data for LB101 from our LockBody platform which we believe has the potential to fundamentally redefine immuno-oncology treatment for patients with cancer. These results demonstrated that LB101 as a single-agent and delivered systemically, led to meaningful and durable responses in a difficult-to-treat mouse model with no apparent observed toxicity,” said Saurabh Saha, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Centessa.

The poster includes in vivo data in a MC38 hPD-L1+ syngeneic mouse model, which demonstrated significantly improved efficacy with durable responses for single-agent LB101 (26 of 32 tumors eradicated across two doses) compared to isotype control IgG (0 of 16) and atezolizumab (4 of 32 across two doses). In rechallenge experiments, none of the mice from groups with prior LB101-induced regressions exhibited tumor growth compared to all naïve mice which rapidly established tumors. At equimolar doses to atezolizumab, LB101 exhibited no anemia, weight-loss or overt toxicity. The poster also includes in vitro data, which demonstrated PD-L1 binding in the locked form and CD47 binding with strongly enhanced antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) in the unlocked form.

“The innovative design of our LockBody molecules takes advantage of human IgG-derived hinges to enable tunable, tumor-specific activation of the conditional effector Fab in the tumor micro-environment after selectively enriching in the tumor with the constitutive Fab of our construct. We plan to advance this exciting LockBody program into the clinic late this year and to continue building this potential platform with multiple novel constructs,” added Antoine Yver, MD, MSc, Chairman of Development at Centessa.

Details of the poster presentation:

• Title: LB101, a conditionally tetravalent PD-L1xCD47 bispecific monoclonal antibody (mAb), combines tumor microenvironment (TME) targeted delivery (PD-L1) and a single biological high potency effector (CD47).
• Poster session: Developmental Therapeutics – Immunotherapy
• Date, time and location: June 5, 2022, 8-11 AM Central Time, Chicago, IL.
• Abstract and poster numbers: Abstract 2562; poster 217

The poster is now live on the ASCO Annual Meeting website at https://conferences.asco.org/am/attend.

About Centessa Pharmaceuticals

Centessa is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company with an R&D innovation engine that aims to discover, develop and ultimately deliver impactful medicines to patients. Our programs span discovery-stage to late-stage development and cover a range of high-value indications in rare diseases and immuno-oncology. We are led by a management team with extensive R&D experience, providing direct guidance to our program teams to rapidly advance our candidates from research through all stages of development. For more information, visit www.centessa.com, which does not form part of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “objective,” “aim,” “aspire,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” “aim,” “seek,” 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 including development of our pre-clinical 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; the development and therapeutic potential of our product candidates, including LB101; strategy; commencement and/or completion dates for clinical trials; 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 for our product candidates as well as risks associated with preliminary data, including the possibility of unfavorable new preclinical or clinical trial data and further analyses of existing preclinical or clinical trial data that may be inconsistent with such preliminary data and our anticipated cash 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 the safety and tolerability profile of our product candidates; 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, including through our financing facility with Oberland, to fund our planned clinical trials and other expenses; trends in the industry; the legal and regulatory framework for the industry, including the receipt and maintenance of clearances to conduct or continue clinical testing; 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/or commercialized; the risk that the results of preclinical studies or clinical studies will not be predictive of future results in connection with future studies; geo-political risks such as the Russia-Ukraine war and risks related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic including the effects of the Delta, Omicron and any other variants. These and other risks concerning our programs and operations are described in additional detail in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 and our other reports, which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We explicitly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.

Contact:

Kristen K. Sheppard, Esq.

Senior Vice President Investor Relations

investors@centessa.com