On or around May 27, 2021, Centessa Pharmaceuticals conducted its initial public offering (“IPO”), selling 16.5 American depositary shares (“ADSs”) priced at $20.00 per share.
Then, on June 2, 2022, Centessa Pharmaceuticals issued a press release “announc[ing] that it has made the strategic decision to discontinue development of lixivaptan for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) including both the Phase 3 ACTION Study and the open-label ALERT Study.” Centessa specified that “[t]he decision is based on a thorough reassessment of the commercial potential of lixivaptan as a potential best-in-class therapy for patients with ADPKD, and the incremental development challenges and associated costs, following a recent observation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) elevations in one subject in the ALERT Study.” On this news, Centessa Pharmaceuticals’ ADS price fell $1.25 per ADS, or 27%, to close at $3.25 per ADS on June 2, 2022.
Then, on August 10, 2022, Centessa Pharmaceuticals issued a press release “announc[ing] its decision to discontinue development of ZF874 following a recent report of an adverse event (AE) involving elevated liver enzymes (AST/ALT) in a PiMZ subject dosed with 5 mg/kg BID of ZF874 in the Phase 1 study.” Centessa Pharmaceuticals stated that “[b]ased on the results observed to date, the Company concluded that ZF874 was unlikely to achieve the desired target product profile.” On this news, Centessa Pharmaceuticals’ ADS price fell 5% per ADS to close at $4.75 per ADS on August 10, 2022.
