Centessa Pharmaceuticals Appoints David Grainger, PhD, a Leading Biotech Entrepreneur, as Chief Innovation Officer
October 05 2021 - 7:00AM
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 PharmaceuticalsCentessa
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:
Investor
Contact: |
Media
Contacts: |
Jennifer Porcelli, Head of
Investor Relations |
US |
Centessa Pharmaceuticals |
Dan Budwick, 1AB |
jennifer.porcelli@centessa.com |
dan@1abmedia.com |
|
|
|
UK/Greater
Europe |
|
Mary Clark, Optimum Strategic
Communications |
|
centessa@optimumcomms.com |
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