Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:CNTA), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company that aims to discover and develop medicines that are transformational for patients, today announced that it has received clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate a Phase 1/2a first-in-human, clinical trial of LB101 for the treatment of solid tumors. LB101, a conditionally tetravalent PD-L1xCD47 LockBody bispecific monoclonal antibody targeting solid tumors, is the first product candidate developed using the Company's proprietary LockBody technology which is designed to selectively drive potent effector function activity, such as CD47, in the tumor microenvironment (TME) while avoiding systemic toxicity.

"We are very excited to be bringing our first LockBody candidate to the clinic and to be advancing a potentially transformative technology for patients with solid tumors," said Saurabh Saha MD PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Centessa. "The clearance of our IND for LB101 is an important milestone for our company as we have an ambitious strategy to advance multiple potential LockBody candidates in areas where there is a significant need for new cancer treatment options. We look forward to initiating the Phase 1/2a trial of LB101 as soon as possible."

About LB101
LB101 is a conditionally tetravalent PD-L1xCD47 LockBody bispecific monoclonal antibody which has two anti-CD47 domains blocked by two anti-PD-L1 domains, with proprietary human IgG-derived hinges linking the anti-CD47 and anti-PD-L1 domains. The cell-killing mechanism of action, CD47, is designed to be blocked by the PD-L1 tumor targeting domain until the IgG-derived hinges are naturally degraded in the TME, thus unlocking and activating the CD47 effector function activity in the tumor.