Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc

Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutics in orexin-based neuroscience. The company is creating a range of small molecule orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) agonists to treat neuroscience diseases linked to issues with wakefulness, attention, cognition, and mood, all based on the orexin pathway's biology. Their approach involves developing a series of novel OX2R agonists for sleep-wake disorders and other neurological, neurodegenerative, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Centessa's most advanced product candidate is cleminorexton (previously ORX750), an oral, potent, and selective OX2R agonist. It is in late-stage clinical development for central disorders of hypersomnolence, including narcolepsy type 1 (NT1), narcolepsy type 2 (NT2), and idiopathic hypersomnia (IH). The company is also developing ORX142 and ORX489, which are follow-up OX2R agonist candidates, for wider neuroscience indications within neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Their earlier pipeline includes additional OX2R agonists and research into the pharmacology of activating the orexin pathway.