cnta-20230331

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

(Mark One)


x			QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2023


o			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission file number 001-04321

CENTESSA PHARMACEUTICALS PLC

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

England and Wales

98-1612294

(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)

(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

3rd Floor

1 Ashley Road

Altrincham

Cheshire WA14 2DT

United Kingdom

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

+44 (0) 203 920 6789, ext. 9999

Registrant's telephone number, including area code

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:


Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Ordinary shares, nominal value £0.002 per share	CNTA	Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC*
American Depositary Shares, each representing one ordinary share, nominal value £0.002 per share	CNTA	Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC

*Not for trading, but only in connection with the listing of the American Depositary Shares on The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes x No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.


Large accelerated filer	o	Accelerated filer	o
Non-accelerated filer	x	Smaller reporting company	x
		Emerging growth company	x

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No x

The registrant had outstanding 95,169,371 ordinary shares as of May 2, 2023.

Table of Contents

Summary of the Material Risks Associated with Our Business

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should be aware of in evaluating our business. These risks are described more fully in Item 1A - Risk Factors, and include, but are not limited to, the following:

•We may not be successful in our efforts to use our differentiated asset-centric drug discovery and development approach to build a pipeline of product candidates with commercial value.

•A single or limited number of programs or product candidates may comprise a large proportion of our value.

•We face challenges, risks and expenses related to the integration of the operations of our asset-centric Centessa Subsidiaries, as well as the management of the expected growth in the scale and complexity of our operations.

•We, and our subsidiaries have incurred net losses since inception, and we expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

•We will need substantial additional funds to advance development of our product candidates, and we cannot guarantee that we will have sufficient funds available in the future to develop and commercialize our current or future product candidates.

•Our credit facility and payment obligations under the Note Purchase Agreement with Oberland Capital contain operating and financial covenants that restrict our business and financing activities, are subject to acceleration in specified circumstances and may adversely affect our financial position or results of operations and our ability to raise additional capital which in turn may increase our vulnerability to adverse clinical or regulatory developments or economic or business downturns or which may result in Oberland Capital taking possession of our assets and disposing of any collateral.

•Our product candidates are in various stages of development, including many in preclinical stages, and may fail in development or suffer delays that materially adversely affect their commercial viability.

•We may not be successful in our efforts to identify, discover, in-license or otherwise acquire additional product candidates and may fail to capitalize on programs or product candidates that may represent a greater commercial opportunity or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.

•Success in preclinical studies or early clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained in later trials.

•We may encounter substantial delays or challenges in the initiation, conduct or completion of our clinical trials, and the results of clinical development are uncertain.

•Even if we complete the necessary preclinical studies and clinical trials, the marketing approval process is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain and may prevent us from obtaining approvals for the commercialization of our product candidates.

•We may be unable to obtain U.S. or foreign regulatory approval and, as a result, unable to commercialize our product candidates.

•We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our preclinical studies, clinical trials, and manufacturing activities and if these third parties perform in an unsatisfactory manner, our business could be substantially harmed.

•Preclinical and clinical development is a long, expensive and uncertain process, we have terminated certain of our programs and may further terminate one or more of our current preclinical and/or clinical development programs.

Table of Contents

Summary of the Material Risks Associated with Our Business (continued)

•We could experience manufacturing problems that result in delays in our development or commercialization of our programs or otherwise harm our business.

•Business interruptions resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war could cause a disruption of the development of our product candidates and adversely impact our business.

•If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient patent and other intellectual property protection for our product candidates and technology or other product candidates that may be identified, or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize product candidates similar or identical to the product candidates, and our ability to successfully commercialize the product candidates and other product candidates that we may pursue may be impaired.

•The patent protection we obtain for our product candidates and technology may be challenged or not sufficient enough to provide us with any competitive advantage.

•A number of our programs and associated product candidates are heavily dependent on licensed intellectual property. If we were to lose our rights to licensed intellectual property, we may not be able to continue developing or commercializing our product candidates, if approved. If we breach any of the agreements under which we license the use, development and commercialization rights to our product candidates or technology from third parties or, in certain cases, we fail to meet certain development deadlines, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

•We have never commercialized a product candidate and we may lack the necessary expertise, personnel and resources to successfully commercialize any of our products that receive regulatory approval on our own or together with collaborators.

•Our international operations may expose us to business, regulatory, legal, political, operational, financial, pricing and reimbursement risks associated with doing business across multiple jurisdictions outside of the United States.

•We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies will make our ADSs less attractive to investors.

•We have previously had material weaknesses in our internal control systems over financial reporting, which have been remediated. We may identify new material weaknesses in the future that may cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations or result in material misstatements in our financial statements. If we fail to remediate any new material weaknesses, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately or to prevent fraud.

•If we fail to develop or maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.

•Holders of ADSs may be subject to limitations on the transfer of their ADSs and the withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares.

•While we do not believe we were a “passive foreign investment company” (“PFIC”) in 2022, there is uncertainty as to whether we are or will be a PFIC in the past or in the future. If we are a PFIC, there could be material adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. holders.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS


		Page
PART I.	FINANCIAL INFORMATION	6

Item 1.	Financial Statements	6
	Consolidated Balance Sheets	6
	Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss	7
	Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity	8
	Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	9
	Notes to Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements	10
Item 2.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	24
Item 3.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk	34
Item 4.	Controls and Procedures	35

PART II.	OTHER INFORMATION	36

Item 1.	Legal Proceedings	36

SEC Form 10-Q filed by Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc