tm218551-3_drsa - block - 36.2189533s
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Confidential Draft Submission No. 2 submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 5, 2021.
This draft registration statement has not been publicly filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and all
information herein remains strictly confidential.
Registration No. 333-       
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Century Therapeutics, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
2836
(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)
84-2040295
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)
3675 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
(267) 817-5790
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrant’s principal executive offices)
Osvaldo Flores, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Century Therapeutics, Inc.
3675 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
(267) 817-5790
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
Rachael M. Bushey
Jennifer L. Porter
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
3000 Two Logan Square
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
(215) 981-4331
Richard Truesdell, Jr.
Roshni Cariello
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
450 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10017
(212) 450-4000
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☐
If this form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
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 ☐ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☒
Smaller reporting company ☒
Emerging growth company ☒
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 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of each class of
securities to be registered
Proposed
maximum
aggregate
offering price(1)
Amount of
registration fee(2)
Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share
$      
$       
(1) Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the amount of the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Includes the aggregate offering price of additional shares of common stock that the underwriters have the option to purchase.
(2) Calculated pursuant to Rule 457(o) based on an estimate of the proposed maximum aggregate offering price.
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
Subject to completion, dated           , 2021
Preliminary prospectus
           shares
[MISSING IMAGE: lg_centurytherap-4clr.jpg]
Common stock
This is the initial public offering of shares of common stock of Century Therapeutics, Inc.
We are offering shares of our common stock. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per share will be between $             and $            .
We have applied to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the trading symbol “IPSC”.
We are an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See the section titled “Risk factors” beginning on page 1 to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.
Per share
Total
Initial public offering price $ $
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1) $ $
Proceeds to us before expenses $ $
(1) See the section titled “Underwriting” beginning on page 185 for additional information regarding compensation payable to the underwriters.
We have granted the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to             additional shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.
The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on      , 2021.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities, or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
J.P. Morgan
BofA Securities
SVB Leerink
Piper Sandler
Prospectus dated      , 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Table of contents
Page
i
ix
xi
1
58
60
61
63
64
66
68
70
87
149
159
168
171
173
178
181
185
196
197
198
F-1
“Century Therapeutics” the “Century Therapeutics” logo, and other trademarks, trade names, or service marks of Century Therapeutics, Inc. appearing in this prospectus are the property of Century Therapeutics, Inc. All other trademarks, trade names, and service marks appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this prospectus may be referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert their rights thereto.
Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered hereby, but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus or in any applicable free writing prospectus is current only as of its date, regardless of its time of delivery or any sale of shares of our common stock. Our business, financial condition, and results of operations may have changed since that date.
For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus or any free writing prospectus we may provide to you in connection with this offering in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. You are required to inform yourselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus and any such free writing prospectus outside the United States.
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Prospectus summary
This summary highlights selected information contained in greater detail elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary is not complete and does not contain all of the information you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully read this entire prospectus. You should carefully consider, among other things, the sections titled “Risk factors,” “Special note regarding forward-looking statements,” and “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. As used in this prospectus, unless the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “us,” “our,” “the company,” “Century,” and similar references refer to: (i) on or prior to June 2019, to our predecessor, Century Therapeutics, Inc., which we refer to as “Prior Century,” ​(ii) from June 2019 to the completion of the 2021 Reorganization (as defined herein), to Century Therapeutics, LLC, and (iii) upon completion of the 2021 Reorganization, to Century Therapeutics, Inc., the registrant on the cover page of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Overview
We are an innovative biotechnology company developing transformative allogeneic cell therapies to create products for the treatment of both solid tumor and hematological malignancies with significant unmet medical need. We have created a comprehensive allogeneic cell therapy platform that includes industry-leading induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, differentiation know-how to generate immune effector cells from iPSCs, or iPSC-derived cells, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR, mediated precision gene editing that allows us to incorporate multiple transgenes and remove target genes intended to optimize cell product performance, sophisticated protein engineering capabilities to develop proprietary next generation chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, our proprietary Allo-EvasionTM technology intended to prevent rejection of our cell products by the host immune system, and cutting edge manufacturing capabilities intended to minimize product development and supply risk. We believe that these vertically integrated capabilities will allow us to further expand our existing pipeline and develop therapeutics from iPSC-derived natural killer cells, or iNK cells, or iNK, and iPSC-derived T cells, or iT cells, or iT, that may provide enhanced clinical outcomes compared to available therapeutic options. Our vision is to become a premier cell therapy company by developing and ultimately commercializing allogeneic cell therapies that dramatically and positively transform the lives of patients suffering from life-threatening cancers. To achieve our vision, we have assembled a world-class team whose members collectively have decades of experience in cell therapy and drug development, manufacturing, and commercialization.
The field of cell therapy is rapidly evolving, with autologous and allogeneic technologies demonstrating the strong potential of this therapeutic modality. We believe that our industry leading, end-to-end iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platform will allow us to overcome technical and biological limitations of other donor-derived cell therapies. The unlimited replication capacity of iPSCs allows us to incorporate multiple genetic modifications at precise sites, or loci, in the genome of iPSCs that are designed to improve cell function using a CRISPR-mediated approach targeting a DNA repair pathway called homology directed repair, or HDR. The precision of our CRISPR-HDR gene editing technology and clonal selection eliminates random integration events and allows more controlled expression of transgenes of interest compared to other gene editing methodologies. The self-renewal capacity of iPSCs also enables the generation of master cell banks derived from single genetically engineered clones thus allowing the implementation of cost-efficient manufacturing of drug product that is available on demand at any clinical site. We have assembled a unique and powerful combination of technologies that bring together a preeminent iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platform with highly advanced cell engineering and manufacturing capabilities. We believe this unique combination puts us in a position to disrupt the oncology treatment paradigm and market.
The key elements of our approach include:
Our efficient precision gene editing technology: We have developed highly efficient gene engineering processes to generate our product candidates. Our first product candidate will have six CRISPR-mediated homologous
 
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
recombination and repair edits, and we plan to incorporate additional edits in our future product candidates. We are currently using the CRISPR-MAD7 nuclease to enable precise cutting of the iPSC genome, and have developed proprietary applications of the CRISPR-MAD7 technology to genetically modify iPSCs by simultaneously removing target genes or adding transgenes (which is commonly known as knocking-out and knocking-in, respectively) of interest at precise genetic loci. Our approach preserves genome integrity and achieves more predictable and consistent transgene expression as compared to approaches driven by viruses or transposable segments called transposons, which result in varied gene copy number and random integration events that risk mutations, namely insertional mutagenesis.
Our proprietary Allo-EvasionTM technology: We are leveraging our Allo-EvasionTM technology to design cells capable of evading identification and destruction by the host immune system. We believe this technology may permit dosing in patients with limited or no immune preconditioning regimens. The reduction in allogeneic immune-reactivity enabled by our use of this technology, which is designed to prevent rejection by the patient’s immune system, may allow repeat dosing of our CAR-modified cell therapies, and sustain therapeutic efficacy over a long period of time.
CAR and protein engineering: CAR design is a critical component of innovative cell therapy product candidates. We assembled a team of scientists with deep protein engineering expertise and invested in the single domain antibody fragment, or VHH, antibody platform to develop world-class CAR engineering capabilities that we believe will allow us to create multi-specific CAR constructs targeting more than one tumor antigen. We believe that targeting multiple antigens on tumor cells will help address tumor heterogeneity and antigen loss, which are frequently observed in tumor cells. We have created a proprietary synthetic library of humanized VHH binders to enable in-house binder screens and multiple campaigns against several tumor antigens are ongoing to generate the CAR constructs for future product candidates.
Common engineered iPSC progenitor accelerates new product candidate generation: With other cell therapy platforms generated from cells with limited replicative capacity, the creation of a new product candidate requires starting over with each of the gene engineering steps having to be incorporated into the product. This is not only time and resource intensive; it also makes it more difficult to predict functionality and safety based upon products that may have been clinically tested in earlier programs. In contrast, all of our iPSC-derived product candidates include a set of shared core features intended to increase their functionality, safety, and persistence. We integrate these core features into a common engineered iPSC progenitor, which has several advantages:

Significant acceleration of new product candidate generation. Multiple product candidates are generated by engineering additional features, such as adding different CARs, to the common progenitor to create new clinical candidates for different tumor indications. With this approach, we do not need to reengineer common functionalities every time we generate a new product candidate.

Robust manufacturing processes for multiple product candidates. Since the starting iPSC line is the same for multiple product candidates, our manufacturing processes are predictable and robust.

Predictability of product candidate functionality, safety, and persistence. Because multiple clinical candidates are derived from the same engineered iPSC line, the lessons learned from one product candidate can be leveraged across multiple product candidates, which facilitates clinical development. For instance, the allo-reactivity of products derived from the same common engineered iPSC progenitor should be very similar.
We expect to file an investigational new drug application, or IND, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, for our lead product candidate CNTY-101, a CAR-iNK product candidate targeting CD19 for lymphoma, in mid 2022. We expect to file an IND for CNTY-103, our CD133 + EGFR iNK product candidate designed to treat glioblastoma, in the first half of 2023. Our third candidate, CNTY-102, is a bi-specific CD19 + CD79b iNK or iT product candidate targeting lymphoma, with IND filing expected in the second half of 2023, and, our fourth candidate, CNTY-104, is a multi-specific product candidate targeting acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, with IND filing expected in mid 2024. As there are disease settings which will favor iNK or iT products, we are actively investigating both iNK and iT cell platforms for CNTY-102 and CNTY-104, as either may have preferential clinical features. We are also advancing an earlier discovery stage pipeline with novel CARs and binders against multiple
 
ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
solid tumor targets using our iNK and iT cell therapy platforms. We believe that the therapeutics we discover and develop, if approved, will have a significant impact on the quality of life of patients suffering from devastating solid tumor and hematological malignancies. Our approach to developing therapies for life-threatening cancers of highly unmet medical need potentially presents an opportunity to efficiently advance our product candidates through clinical development, regulatory approval and ultimately to commercialization.
Our collaboration with FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics Inc., or FCDI, provides us with licenses to certain premier iPSC technologies, patents and know-how, giving us our initial start which enabled us to accelerate generation of our first-generation product candidates and development of our manufacturing processes. We have built and expanded on this foundation with our own resources, applying our own gene editing, protein engineering, process development, and manufacturing expertise to develop our novel product candidates and platforms for which we are developing our own intellectual property. We retain exclusive commercialization rights in the United States and other major commercial markets for our product candidates developed pursuant to our collaboration with FCDI.
Advantages of our proprietary allogeneic cell platform technology
Key advantages of our proprietary allogeneic cell platform technology include:

Greatly improved therapeutic application: We believe that our Allo-EvasionTM engineering technology will allow our cell product candidates to escape recognition and destruction by the host immune system. We believe the reduction in allogeneic reactivity enabled by our use of this technology will allow repeat dosing of our CAR-modified cell therapies to improve therapeutic efficacy. In combination with the extended killing capability of optimized immune cells derived from single genetically engineered cell cloning, we envision utilizing repeat dosing to maximize durability of response and efficacy. Additionally, we believe this technology may permit dosing in patients with limited or no immune preconditioning regimes.

Manufacturing, product quality, and COGS advantages: We believe our use of iPSCs, which have the potential to propagate indefinitely, will allow us to develop a streamlined manufacturing process with scalability advantages while producing consistent, high quality, off-the-shelf products at reduced manufacturing costs. Given the indefinite propagation potential of iPSC-derived allogeneic cells, we believe that a single master cell bank can be used for the lifetime of the product.
 
iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Our pipeline
We are assembling a portfolio of allogeneic iNK and iT cell therapy product candidates across solid tumor and hematological malignancies. This pipeline is comprised of cell therapies intended to address diseases where we believe current therapies are inadequate. All product candidates incorporate our proprietary Allo-EvasionTM technology to avoid host rejection and potentially increase the durability of clinical responses. With the exception of our lead product candidate, CNTY-101, each of our product candidates is designed to target multiple tumor antigens. We currently anticipate filing an IND for our lead product candidate, CNTY-101, targeting B-cell lymphoma, in mid 2022. Our second product candidate, CNTY-103, is designed to treat glioblastoma, and we currently anticipate filing an IND in the first half of 2023. Our third product candidate, CNTY-102, is designed to further improve B-cell malignancy treatment, and we are planning on filing an IND for it in the second half of 2023. Our fourth product candidate, CNTY-104, is being developed to treat AML with the IND filing expected in mid 2024. Our development programs consist of the product candidates illustrated in the pipeline chart below:
[MISSING IMAGE: tm218551d3-fc_pipeline4c.jpg]
(1)
We are party to an option agreement with Bayer HealthCare LLC, or Bayer, pursuant to which Bayer was granted certain bidding rights relating to the potential transfer of rights with respect to certain product candidates being researched and developed by us which are comprised of iNK cells, macrophages or dendritic cells, including CNTY-101, CNTY-103 and any other product candidate comprised of iNK cells that we develop in the future. Bayer's rights under the option agreement are subject to important limitations. See "Business—Licensing, partnership and collaboration—Bayer HealthCare LLC—Option Agreement" for more information.
CNTY-101: Our CAR-iNK candidate targeting CD19 for relapsed, refractory B-cell lymphoma. Our lead product candidate, CNTY-101, is an allogeneic, iPSC-derived CAR-iNK cell therapy that has been engineered to express CD19 CAR, soluble IL-15, an EGFR safety switch, and also contains gene edits needed to incorporate Allo-EvasionTM technology. We expect clinical candidate clone selection in the first half of 2021, and plan to move into IND enabling preclinical and technical studies and manufacturing at that time. We anticipate filing an IND to advance CNTY-101 into a Phase 1 clinical trial in mid 2022.
CNTY-103: Our CAR-iNK candidate targeting CD133 + EGFR for recurrent glioblastoma. We are pursuing a differentiated approach addressing glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, tumor heterogeneity, and planning local administration of the iNK cell product candidate. CNTY-103 represents our first clinical product candidate targeting a solid tumor and we believe targeting GBM with our engineered iNK cells may provide an opportunity to assess the clinical utility of, or establish proof of concept for, our iPSC-derived iNK cell therapy platform. We are projecting filing an IND and/or clinical trial application, or CTA, for recurrent GBM in the first half of 2023.
CNTY-102: Our CAR-iT or CAR-iNK candidate targeting CD19 + CD79b for relapsed, refractory B-cell lymphoma and other B-cell malignancies. CNTY-102 will simultaneously target CD19 and CD79b, intended to increase depth and durability of response by eliminating the effect of CD19 antigen loss that has been observed as a factor limiting treatment durability, as well as targeting CD79b, an independently regulated, ubiquitous and validated B-cell target. We currently envision filing the IND for CNTY-102 in the second half of 2023.
CNTY-104: Our CAR-iT or CAR-iNK multi-specific candidate for acute myeloid leukemia. CNTY-104 will utilize our multi-specific iNK or iT cells for the treatment of AML. Given the known therapeutic activity of natural killer, or NK, cells in AML, there might be an advantage to using the iNK cell platform to build the product candidate, but we will evaluate both the iNK and iT cell therapy platforms and choose the one likely to provide the best therapeutic index in the clinic. We currently envision filing the IND for CNTY-104 in mid 2024.
 
iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Discovery platform. In addition to our named programs, we are actively engaged in a number of earlier stage discovery programs where we believe our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platform may provide differentiated therapeutic benefits. These discovery stage initiatives are focused on several solid tumor indications including bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma. For these and other indications, we plan to use multispecific CARs and explore the use of both iNK and iT cells to identify the best cell platform to build the product candidate.
Our strategy
Our vision is to be a leader in the treatment of both solid tumor and hematological malignancies that address unmet medical needs by developing innovative allogeneic cell therapy products derived from our proprietary technologies. We are initially focused on advancing the clinical development and commercialization of tumor-targeted iNK and iT cell therapeutics. We believe that our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms have the potential to overcome the limitations of existing therapies, lower manufacturing costs and improve patient outcomes. To deliver on our mission, we intend to:

Build a leading cell therapy company leveraging our comprehensive iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms designed to overcome the limitations of existing cancer therapies.

Maximize the potential to treat a broad range of cancers by exploiting the distinct biologies of both NK and T cells.

Leverage our Allo-EvasionTM technology across our product platform to avoid host rejection and enable repeat dosing.

Exploit serial gene editing of iPSCs to create product candidates with enhanced functionalities and fit for purpose product characteristics.

Leverage our own future manufacturing infrastructure, product and process understanding, and scale-up technologies to minimize manufacturing risk.
Our team
We are led by pioneers and subject-matter experts with decades of collective experience in cell therapy and oncology drug development. Dr. Osvaldo Flores, our Chief Executive Officer, has over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development. Prior to Century, he was Vice President of R&D at Janssen after the acquisition of Novira Therapeutics, where he was a co-founder, President, and Chief Science Officer. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at Merck & Co. and Tularik Inc. Dr. Hyam Levitsky, our President of Research and Development, previously held key R&D positions at Juno Therapeutics and Roche. Dr. Adrienne Farid, our Chief Operations Officer, has over 25 years of drug development experience and previously worked at Celgene, Roche, and SmithKline Beecham. Dr. Greg Russotti, our Chief Technology Officer, has over 30 years of experience and previously worked at Celgene and Merck. Dr. Luis Borges, our Chief Scientific Officer, has over 25 years of experience, with precedent positions in Cell Medica, Five Prime Therapeutics, Amgen, and Immunex. Dr. Michael Diem, our Chief Business Officer, has more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and held business and investment roles at Amicus, AstraZeneca, Aevi Genomics, GlaxoSmithKline, and SR One.
Our board of directors includes members with extensive experience leading companies in the fields of biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals, including Joseph Jimenez, former Chief Executive Officer of Novartis, and Toshikazu Ban, Corporate Vice President and Senior Deputy General Manager of the pharmaceutical product division at FUJIFILM Corporation Ltd. Our internal abilities are further underpinned by our Scientific Advisory Board, which consists of world-renowned scientists, clinicians, and key opinion leaders with decades of experience in the fields of stem cell biology, immunology, oncology, and cell therapy.
Since our inception in 2018, we have raised gross proceeds of approximately $340 million. Our stockholders include premier life science and strategic investors, including Versant Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, FCDI, Casdin Capital, Fidelity Management & Research LLC, the Federated Hermes Kauffmann Funds, RA Capital, Logos Capital, OrbiMed, Marshall Wace, Qatar Investment Authority, Avidity Partners, and Octagon Capital.
 
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Risks associated with our business
Our business is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making a decision to invest in our common stock. These risks are more fully described in the section titled “Risk factors” immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks include, among others, the following:

we have a limited operating history, have incurred significant losses since our inception, and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses in the foreseeable future;

we are very early in our development efforts and our business is dependent on our ability to advance our current and future product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval and ultimately commercialize our current and future product candidates;

we will need to raise substantial additional financing to fund our operations and continue the development of our product candidates;

we are highly dependent on our strategic relationships and collaborations and any termination or loss of significant rights under such arrangements with our strategic partners could seriously harm our business;

the COVID-19 pandemic may materially and adversely affect our business and our financial results and could cause a disruption to our supply chain and the development of our product candidates;

utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells represents a novel approach to immuno-oncology treatment of cancer, and we must overcome significant challenges in order to develop, commercialize, and manufacture our product candidates;

the manufacture and distribution of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates is complex and subject to a multitude of risks;

if we are unable to successfully commercialize our lead product candidate CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed; and

we may face difficulties in obtaining, protecting, maintaining, and enforcing our intellectual property rights, including intellectual property rights that are licensed to us.
Recent developments
Series C Preferred Stock Financing
On February 25, 2021, we sold 24,721,999 shares of our Series C preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share, or the Series C preferred stock, to certain institutional investors at a price of approximately $6.472 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately $160 million, which we refer to herein as the Series C Financing. The shares of Series C preferred stock were sold pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Upon the closing of this offering, all outstanding shares of our preferred stock, including our Series C preferred stock, will be automatically converted into an aggregate of 85,865,789 shares of common stock.
Our corporate information
We were formed in 2018 as Century Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, or Prior Century. In connection with an investment in our Company by Bayer Healthcare LLC, in 2019, Prior Century contributed substantially all of its operating assets and cash to a newly formed entity, Century Therapeutics, LLC, or the LLC Entity, in exchange for units of the LLC Entity. We refer to this transaction as the 2019 Reorganization. From June 2019 to February 2021, our business was operated through the LLC Entity. On February 25, 2021, the LLC Entity converted from a Delaware limited liability company to a Delaware corporation, and changed its name to CenturyTx, Inc. Upon completion of this conversion, Prior Century merged with and into CenturyTx, Inc., with CenturyTx, Inc. as the surviving entity and CenturyTx, Inc. changed its name to “Century Therapeutics, Inc.” In
 
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
connection with this merger, the holders of equity interests in Prior Century received equivalent equity interests in Century Therapeutics, Inc. We refer to these transactions on February 25, 2021 as the 2021 Reorganization.
Our principal executive offices are located at 3675 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, and our telephone number is (267) 817-5790. Our corporate website is www.centurytx.com. Information contained on, or accessible through, our website shall not be deemed incorporated into and is not a part of this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part. We have included our website in this prospectus solely as an inactive textual reference and do not intend it to be an active link to our website.
Implications of being an emerging growth company
As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting requirements that are otherwise generally applicable to public companies. As such, we may take advantage of reduced disclosure and other requirements otherwise generally applicable to public companies, including:

presenting only two years of audited financial statements, in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements, with correspondingly reduced “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” disclosure in this prospectus;

not being required to have our registered independent public accounting firm attest to management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting;

an exemption from compliance with any requirement that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board may adopt regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements;

presenting reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements;

not being required to hold non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements; and

extended transition periods for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
We have taken advantage of some of these reduced disclosure and other requirements in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different than the information you receive from our competitors that are public companies or other public companies in which you hold stock.
The JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This provision allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of some accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (1) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the closing of this offering, (2) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (3) the last day of the fiscal year in which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter of such year, or (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
We are also a “smaller reporting company,” meaning that the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million.
 
vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation.
 
viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
The offering
Common stock offered by us
      shares.
Underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares
      shares.
Common stock to be outstanding after this offering
      shares (or          shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares).
Use of proceeds
We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $      million (or approximately $      million if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase up to             additional shares of common stock), based on the assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund research and development of our product candidates and development programs, including our pre-clinical and clinical development of CNTY-101, CNTY-103, CNTY-102, and CNTY-104, to continue developing manufacturing capabilities for our product candidates, and for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including costs and expenses associated with being a public company.
See the section titled “Use of proceeds” for additional information.
Risk factors
You should read the section titled “Risk factors” for a discussion of factors to consider carefully, together with all the other information included in this prospectus, before deciding to invest in our common stock.
Proposed Nasdaq Global Select Market trading symbol
“IPSC”
The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 110,247,171 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2021, (which includes 4,648,745 shares outstanding that are subject to forfeiture or our right to repurchase as of such date) assuming the conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 85,865,789 shares of common stock upon the closing of this offering, and excludes:

      shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options as of March 31, 2021, at a weighted-average exercise price of $      per share;

40,540 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants to purchase common stock, at a weighted-average exercise price of $5.55 per share;

      shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards as of March 31, 2021 under our 2018 Stock Option and Grant Plan, as amended, or the 2018 Plan;
 
ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Plan which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance pursuant to the 2021 Plan; and

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP.
Unless otherwise indicated, all information contained in this prospectus, including the number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding after this offering, assumes or gives effect to:

no exercise of the outstanding options or warrants described above;

the filing and effectiveness of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation immediately prior to the closing of this offering;

a           for           reverse stock split of our common stock to be effected prior to the closing of this offering;

the automatic conversion of all our preferred stock outstanding into an aggregate of 85,865,789 shares of our common stock upon the closing of this offering; and

no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to             additional shares of our common stock.
 
x

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Summary consolidated financial data
The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated. The year ended December 31, 2020 and the period of June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 are referred to herein as Successor and the period of January 1, 2019 through June 20, 2019 is referred to herein as Predecessor. We have derived the selected consolidated statements of operations data for the Year Ended December 31, 2020 (Successor), the period from June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 (Successor) and the period from January 1, 2019 through June 20, 2019 (Predecessor), and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor) from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. For interim periods, we have derived our selected statements of operations data for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 and the selected balance sheet data as of March 31, 2021 from our unaudited condensed financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited condensed financial statements were prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and include, in management’s opinion, all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial information set forth in those statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. You should read the following consolidated financial data together with our audited consolidated financial statements and our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and the information in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
March 31,
December 31,
2020
Successor
period from
June 21, 2019
(Inception) to
December 31,
2019
Predecessor
period from
January 1,
2019 to
June 20,
2019
2021
2020
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:
Operating expenses:
Research and development
$ 15,374 $ 7,943 $ 39,681 $ 10,107 $ 4,159
General and administrative
2,688 2,050 9,495 3,622 2,145
Write off of in-process research and development
asset
4,722 225,946
Total operating expenses
18,062 9,993 53,898 239,675 6,304
Loss from operations
(18,062) (9,993) (53,898) (239,675) (6,304)
Interest expense
(314) (381)
Other income, net
28 320 704 908 302
Net loss
$ (18,348) $ (9,673) $ (53,575) $ (238,767) $ (6,002)
Net loss per common share
Basic and Diluted(1)
$ (0.95) $ (0.51) $ (2.85) $ (12.68) $ (0.40)
Weighted average common shares outstanding
Basic and Diluted(1)
19,278,887 18,825,136 18,825,136 18,825,136 15,029,240
Pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders – basic and diluted (unaudited)(2)
$ (0.17) $ (0.51)
Pro forma weighted-average number of common shares – basic and diluted (unaudited)(2)
105,144,676 104,690,925
(1) See Note 15 of our audited consolidated financial statements and Note 13 of our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted net loss per share, and the weighted-average number of shares outstanding used in the computation of the per share amounts.
(2) See the subsection titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Unaudited Pro Forma Information” for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted pro forma net loss per share, and the weighted-average number of shares outstanding used in the computation of the per share amounts.
 
xi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
March 31,
2021
December 31,
(in thousands)
2020
2019
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Cash and cash equivalents
$ 79,483 $ 27,211 $ 44,064
Working capital(1)
172,387 66,685 81,128
Total assets
286,055 106,776 90,896
Convertible preferred stock
339,389 179,761 179,761
Accumulated deficit
(310,690) (292,342) (238,767)
Total stockholders’ deficit
(91,557) (106,412) (91,859)
(1) We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities. See our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding our current assets and current liabilities.
 
xii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Risk factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations,” before deciding whether to invest in our common stock. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risks related to our financial position and capital requirements
Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We are a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history on which to base your investment decision. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting discovery and research activities, filing patent applications, identifying potential product candidates, and preparing to initiate and conduct clinical trials, undertaking preclinical studies, in-licensing intellectual property, and establishing manufacturing processes and arrangements with third parties for the manufacture of initial quantities of our product candidates and component materials. All of our product candidates are still in the discovery and preclinical testing phase. We do not expect to submit an Investigational New Drug Application, or IND, for any of our product candidates until mid 2022. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully commence or complete a clinical trial, submit an IND, or submit a biologics license application, or BLA, for a product candidate, obtain regulatory approval for any product candidate, manufacture a product at a commercial-scale or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales, marketing, and distribution activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, any assumptions you make about our future success or viability may not be as informed as they could be if we had a longer operating history.
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception and expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception. If our product candidates are not successfully developed and approved, we may never generate any revenue. Our net losses were $6.0 million, $238.8 million, $53.6 million, and $18.3 million for the period from January 1, 2019 through June 20, 2019 (our predecessor, Century Therapeutics, Inc., or Prior Century), the period from June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 (our successor after the completion of the 2019 Reorganization (as defined herein), or the Successor), the year ended December 31, 2020 (Successor) and the quarter ended March 31, 2021 (Successor), respectively. We had an accumulated deficit of $310.7 million as of March 31, 2021. Our net loss for the period from June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 (Successor) and our members’ deficit as of December 31, 2020 (Successor) included a charge to expense of $225.9 million related to in-process research and development assets, or IPR&D, acquired from Prior Century. Substantially all of our losses have resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs, the acquisition of IPR&D from Prior Century and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. All of our product candidates will require the expenditure of substantial additional development time and resources before we would be able to apply for or receive regulatory approvals and begin realizing product sales. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we anticipate these losses will increase as we continue our development of, seek regulatory approval for, and potentially commercialize any of our product candidates and seek to identify, assess, acquire, in-license, or develop additional product candidates. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have a negative effect on our stockholders’ deficit and working capital.
 
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
We expect that it will be several years, if ever, before we have a commercialized product. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:

continue to advance our induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSC-derived allogeneic, cell therapy platforms;

continue preclinical development of, and initiate clinical development of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates;

seek to discover and develop additional product candidates;

establish and validate our own clinical-scale current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, facilities;

seek regulatory approvals for any of our other product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

maintain, expand, protect, and enforce our intellectual property portfolio;

acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies;

incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company, which will require us to add operational, financial, and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our drug development, any future commercialization efforts, and our transition to a public company; and

increase our employee headcount and related expenses to support these activities.
We may never succeed in any or all of these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenue.
We have never generated revenue from product sales and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
We have no product candidates in clinical development or approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue. To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize product candidates with significant market potential, which will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities. These activities can include completing preclinical studies and initiating and completing clinical trials of our product candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates, manufacturing, marketing, and selling those products that are approved and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in any or all of these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate sufficient revenues to achieve profitability. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biologics product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability.
Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business, or continue our operations.
We will require additional funding in order to finance operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, or on acceptable terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
Developing biopharmaceutical products, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, is a very time-consuming, expensive, and uncertain process that takes years to complete. Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception, and we expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we conduct preclinical and clinical trials of, and seek regulatory and marketing approval for, our product candidates. Even if one or more of our product candidates is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product candidate. We have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our securities. We intend to use the proceeds from this offering to, among other uses, fund research and development of our product candidates and development programs, including our preclinical and clinical development of CNTY-101, CNTY-103, CNTY-102, and CNTY-104. Our research and development expenses increased from $14.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 to $39.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 and from $7.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 to $15.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. As of March 31, 2021,
 
2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
we had cash, and cash equivalents of $79.5 million and marketable securities of $166.6 million. Based on our current business plans, we believe that the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, will be sufficient for us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures requirements for the next           months after this filing.
Attempting to secure additional financing will divert our management from our day-to-day activities, which may impair or delay our ability to develop our product candidates. In addition, demands on our cash resources may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us including, but not limited to, any unforeseen costs we may incur as a result of preclinical study or clinical trial delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other causes, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis or at all, we may be required to significantly curtail or stop one or more of our research or development programs.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, including purchasers of our common stock in this offering, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
Until and unless we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through the proceeds from this offering, a combination of equity offerings and debt financings, and potentially through additional license and development agreements or strategic partnerships or collaborations with third parties. Financing may not be available in sufficient amounts or on reasonable terms. In addition, market volatility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors could adversely impact our ability to access capital as and when needed. We have no commitments for any additional financing, and will likely be required to raise such financing through the sale of additional securities, which, in the case of equity securities, may occur at prices lower than the offering price of our common stock in this offering. If we sell equity or equity-linked securities, our current stockholders, including investors in this offering, may be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that are senior to or otherwise adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. Moreover, if we issue debt, we may need to dedicate a substantial portion of our operating cash flow to paying principal and interest on such debt and we may need to comply with operating restrictions, such as limitations on incurring additional debt, which could impair our ability to acquire, sell, or license intellectual property rights and impede our ability to conduct our business. Furthermore, the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
If we raise additional funds through licensing or collaboration arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates or grant licenses under our intellectual property on terms that are not favorable to us. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when or if we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
The net operating losses of Prior Century carried over to us as a result of the merger of Prior Century with and into us on February 25, 2021 in the amount of approximately $5.0 million of federal net operating loss carryforwards, and approximately $9.5 million of state and local net operating loss carryforwards. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, subject to certain limitations, unused losses will carryforward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, if a corporation undergoes an ownership change (generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage points change (by value) in its equity ownership over a rolling three-year period), the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating losses and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. We believe that Prior Century or we may have experienced an ownership change in the past, which may affect our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards. In addition, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of this offering or subsequent shifts in our stock
 
3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
ownership, some of which are outside our control. Similar limitations will apply to our ability to carry forward any unused tax credits to offset future taxable income.
Our Option Agreement with Bayer HealthCare LLC may require us to sell certain of our product candidates, which may limit the value we could generate from our product candidates.
We are party to an option agreement, or the Option Agreement, with Bayer HealthCare LLC, or Bayer, pursuant to which Bayer was granted certain bidding rights relating to the potential transfer of rights with respect to certain product candidates being researched and developed by us which are comprised of allogeneic iPSC-derived natural killer cells, macrophages or dendritic cells, which we refer to as the Research Products. Under the Option Agreement, Bayer was granted a right of first refusal, or ROFR, to submit bids for the transfer or license of rights to research, develop and/or commercialize certain Research Products, which we refer to as the Research Product Rights. The Research Products include CNTY-101, CNTY-103 and any other product candidate comprised of iNK cells that we develop in the future. Bayer may exercise its ROFR for up to four of the first ten Research Products for which an IND is submitted, subject to certain limitations.
For a more complete description of the Option Agreement, please see the section titled “Business—Licensing Partnerships and Collaborations—Bayer Healthcare LLC” in this prospectus.
If Bayer exercises its ROFR for one of our Research Products, we may be required to transfer such Research Product (by sale, license, or other structure to be negotiated) to Bayer for a market value as determined by our board of directors, and such determination of market value may ultimately prove to be lower than the actual realizable value of applicable Research Product. There can be no guarantee that we will utilize the proceeds received in connection with the exercise of Bayer’s ROFR in a manner which will provide us with greater value than if we had retained the Research Product or sold such Research Product to another party. Any failure to realize or utilize the full value of our Research Products due to the Option Agreement could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.
Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition, and stock price.
Global financial markets have experienced, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have in the past experienced, extreme volatility and disruptions, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability. There can be no assurance that further deterioration in credit and financial markets and confidence in economic conditions will not occur. Our general business strategy and ability to raise capital may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn, volatile business environment, or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. If the current equity and credit markets deteriorate, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance, and stock price and could require us to delay or abandon clinical development plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our current service providers, manufacturers, and other partners may not survive these difficult economic times, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.
In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, including very recently in connection with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in decreased stock prices for many companies notwithstanding the lack of a fundamental change in their underlying business models or prospects. These fluctuations have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors, including potentially worsening economic conditions and other adverse effects, or developments relating to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, political, regulatory, and other market conditions, may negatively affect the market price of shares of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.
 
4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Risks related to our business and industry
We are very early in our development efforts. Our business is dependent on our ability to advance our current and future product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval, and ultimately commercialize them.
We are very early in our development efforts and all of our product candidates are still in preclinical development. We expect to file an IND for our lead product candidate CNTY-101, in mid 2022 and we expect to file an IND for CNTY-103 in the first half of 2023. Additionally, we are actively engaged in a number of earlier stage discovery programs that may never advance to clinical-stage development. Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates, which may never occur. We currently generate no revenue from product sales and we may never be able to develop or commercialize a marketable product.
Each of our product candidates will require additional preclinical and/or clinical development, regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions, obtaining manufacturing supply, capacity and expertise, building a commercial organization, or successfully outsourcing commercialization, substantial investment, and significant marketing efforts before we generate any revenue from product sales. Our product candidates must be authorized for marketing by the FDA, or certain other foreign regulatory agencies before we may commercialize our product candidates.
The clinical and commercial success of our product candidates will depend on several factors, including the following:

timely and successful completion of preclinical studies, including toxicology studies, biodistribution studies, and minimally efficacious dose studies in animals, where applicable;

effective INDs or comparable foreign applications that allow commencement of our planned clinical trials or future clinical trials for our product candidates;

successful enrollment and completion of clinical trials, including under the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practices, or cGCPs, and current Good Laboratory Practices, or GLPs;

positive results from our future clinical programs that support a finding of safety and effectiveness and an acceptable risk-benefit profile of our product candidates in the intended populations;

receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;

establishment of arrangements with CMOs for clinical supply and, where applicable, commercial manufacturing capabilities;

establishment and maintenance of patent and trade secret protection, and/or regulatory exclusivity for our product candidates;

commercial launch of our product candidates, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

acceptance of the benefits and use of our product candidates, including method of administration, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community, and third-party payors;

effective competition with other therapies;

establishment and maintenance of healthcare coverage and adequate reimbursement and patients’ willingness to pay out-of-pocket in the absence of such coverage and adequate reimbursement;

establishment of a physician training system and network for administration of our product candidates;

enforcement and defense of intellectual property rights and claims; and

maintenance of a continued acceptable safety, tolerability, and efficacy profile of our product candidates following approval.
 
5

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
If we do not succeed in one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would materially harm our business. If we are unable to advance our product candidates to clinical development, obtain regulatory approval, and ultimately commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
Our business is highly dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, CNTY-101 and our other product candidates.
We cannot guarantee that an IND application will be cleared by the FDA for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates or that CNTY-101 or our other product candidates will be approved for commercialization, on a timely basis or at all. Although certain of our employees have prior experience with clinical trials and regulatory approvals, we have not previously completed any clinical trials or submitted an IND or a BLA to the FDA, or similar regulatory approval filings to comparable foreign authorities, for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that CNTY-101 or our other product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. The FDA and other comparable global regulatory authorities can delay, limit, or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons. Any delay in obtaining, or inability to obtain, applicable regulatory approval will delay or harm our ability to successfully initiate clinical trials and commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Furthermore, if our clinical trials of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates encounter safety, efficacy, or manufacturing problems, development delays, regulatory issues, or other problems, our development plans for such product candidates in our pipeline could be significantly impaired, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We may also evaluate our product candidates in combination with one or more other cancer therapies that have not yet been approved for marketing by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside of the United States. If the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside of the United States do not approve these other drugs or revoke their approval of, or if safety, efficacy, manufacturing, or supply issues arise with, the drugs we choose to evaluate in combination with any product candidate we develop or combination therapy, we may be unable to obtain approval of or market our product candidates.
Our business depends upon the success of our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms.
Our success depends on our ability to utilize our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms to generate chimeric antigen receptors, or CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cell product candidates, to obtain regulatory approval for product candidates derived from it, and to then commercialize our product candidates addressing one or more indications. Though iPSC-derived cell therapy product candidates have been evaluated by others in clinical trials, our product candidates have never been evaluated in human clinical trials, and we may experience unexpected or adverse results in the future. We are exposed to a number of unforeseen risks and it is difficult to predict the types of challenges and risks that we may encounter during development of our product candidates. All of our product candidates developed from our iPSC allogeneic cell therapy platforms will require significant clinical and non-clinical development, review and approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities in one or more jurisdictions, substantial investment, access to sufficient commercial manufacturing capacity, and significant marketing efforts before they can be successfully commercialized. If any of our product candidates encounter safety or efficacy problems, developmental delays, or regulatory issues or other problems, such problems could impact the development plans for our other product candidates because all of our product candidates are based on the same core iPSC technology.
Additionally, a key element of our strategy is to use and expand our iPSC allogeneic cell therapy platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates and progress those product candidates through clinical development for the treatment of a variety of different types of diseases. Although our research and development efforts to date have been focused on identifying a pipeline of product candidates, we may not be able to develop product
 
6

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
candidates that are safe and effective. Even if we are successful in building our pipeline, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of being shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be approvable or marketable and achieve market acceptance. If we do not continue to successfully develop, get approval for, and begin to commercialize any product candidates, we will face difficulty in obtaining product revenue in future periods, which could result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely affect our share price.
Utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells represents a novel approach to immuno-oncology treatment of cancer, and we must overcome significant challenges in order to develop, commercialize, and manufacture our product candidates.
We have concentrated our research and development efforts on developing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cell therapies. To date, the FDA has only approved 19 cell-based therapies for commercialization. The processes and requirements imposed by the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities may cause delays and additional costs in obtaining approvals for our product candidates. Because our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms are novel, and cell-based therapies are relatively new, regulatory agencies may lack experience in evaluating our product candidates utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells. This novelty may lengthen the regulatory review process, including the time it takes for the FDA to review our IND applications, if and when submitted, increase our development costs, and delay or prevent commercialization of our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platform products. Additionally, advancing novel immuno-oncology cell therapies creates significant challenges for us, including:

developing a manufacturing process to produce our cells on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner;

educating medical personnel regarding the potential side-effect profile of our cells and, as the clinical program progresses, on any observed side effects with the therapy;

unanticipated technical limitations of our CRISPR-MAD7 gene editing technology; and

establishing sales and marketing capabilities, as well as developing a distribution network to support the commercialization of any approved products.
We must be able to overcome these challenges in order for us to develop, commercialize, and manufacture our product candidates utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells.
We have not yet demonstrated long-term stability of cryopreserved CAR-iNK cells.
We have not yet demonstrated long-term stability of cryopreserved CAR-iNK cells and, therefore, do not know if we will be able to store the cryopreserved cells for extended periods of time. If we are unable to demonstrate long-term stability, we will need to reduce the manufacturing batch size to ensure that the material we produce will be used before it expires. In that case, the scaling of our production processes will not deliver the efficiencies we expect, and the cost per dose of our product candidates will be substantially higher. We may also encounter difficulties not only in developing freezing and thawing methodologies for large-scale use, but also in obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for using such methodologies in treatment. If we cannot adequately demonstrate similarity of our frozen product to the unfrozen form to the satisfaction of the FDA, we could face substantial delays in our regulatory approvals.
Gene-editing is a rapidly developing technology, and our success is dependent upon our ability to effectively utilize this technology in our product candidates and implement future technological advancements in gene-editing.
We use CRISPR-based nuclease to enable precise editing of the iPSC genome. For CNTY-101, we used the nuclease Cpf-1 but have shifted to CRISPR-MAD7 for all subsequent product candidates, and we may utilize CRISPR-MAD7 for CNTY-101 in the future. We decided to shift to CRISPR-MAD7 because we entered into a license agreement with Inscripta, Inc. and obtained a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable license to a patent portfolio covering the composition, production and use of CRISPR-MAD7. We have optimized the protocols to produce CRISPR-MAD7 and have achieved similar cutting and HDR efficiencies compared to Cpf-1, but we don’t have as much experimental data with CRISPR-MAD7 as we do with Cpf1. We may encounter technical liabilities
 
7

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
associated with CRISPR-MAD7 that could force us to use a different CRISPR nuclease which could delay our programs and require us to enter into a license agreement for additional technology, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Our gene-editing technology may create unintended changes to the DNA such as a non-target site gene-edit, a large deletion, or a DNA translocation, any of which could impact timelines for new product generation. We have developed various genome characterization assays to identify deletions/insertions that can occur as a result of gene editing.
Although we believe CAR-iNK and CAR-iT based therapies do not require further modification to avoid the risk of graft versus host disease, or GvHD, the gene-editing of our product candidates utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells may not be successful in limiting the risk of GvHD or premature rejection by patients.
In addition, the cell therapy industry is rapidly developing, and our competitors may introduce new gene-editing technologies that render our technology less attractive. Competitive pressures may force us to implement new gene-editing technologies at a substantial cost or delay in our clinical development process. In addition, our competitors may have greater financial, technical and personnel resources that allow them to implement new gene-editing technologies before we can. We cannot be certain that we will be able to implement new gene-editing technologies on a timely basis or at a cost that is acceptable to us. If we are unable to implement technological advancements consistent with industry standards, our operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Our product candidates for which we intend to seek approval as biologic products may face competition sooner than anticipated.
The Affordable Care Act, or the ACA, includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed reference biological product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a highly similar or “biosimilar” product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first approved by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first approved. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity, and potency of their product. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty. In addition, complexities associated with the larger, and often more complex, structures of biological products such as cell and gene products we are developing, as well as the processes by which such products are manufactured, pose significant hurdles to implementation of the abbreviated approval pathway that are still being worked out by the FDA.
We believe that any of our product candidates approved as a biological product under a BLA should qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity. However, there is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for competition sooner than anticipated. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.
Jurisdictions in addition to the United States have established abbreviated pathways for regulatory approval of biological products that are biosimilar to earlier approved reference products. For example, the European Union has had an established regulatory pathway for biosimilars since 2004. However, biosimilars can only be authorized once the period of data exclusivity on the reference biological medicine has expired.
The increased likelihood of biosimilar competition has increased the risk of loss of innovators’ market exclusivity. Due to this risk, and uncertainties regarding patent protection, if our clinical candidates are approved for
 
8

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
marketing, it is not possible to predict the length of market exclusivity for any particular product with certainty based solely on the expiration of the relevant patent(s) or the current forms of regulatory exclusivity. It is also not possible to predict changes in United States regulatory law that might reduce biological product regulatory exclusivity. The loss of market exclusivity for a product would likely materially and negatively affect revenues and we may not generate adequate or sufficient revenues from them or be able to reach or sustain profitability.
Preclinical and clinical development involve a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our current product candidates or any future product candidates.
All of our product candidates are in preclinical development and their risk of failure is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our discovery or product candidates will receive regulatory approval. To obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidates, we must demonstrate through extensive preclinical studies and lengthy, complex, and expensive clinical trials that our product candidates are safe and effective in humans. Clinical testing can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process.
The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials or early cohorts of our clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials or later cohorts of our clinical trials. Our initial clinical trials will begin with relatively small cohorts before expanding in size in subsequent cohorts. The initial cohorts of early-stage clinical trials often involve enrollment of a small number of patients and may not be as predictive as trials with larger cohorts. Additionally, if safety issues arise in an early cohort, we may be delayed or prevented from subsequently expanding into larger trial cohorts. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful, and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing. Differences in trial design between early-stage clinical trials and later-stage clinical trials make it difficult to extrapolate the results of earlier clinical trials to later clinical trials.
Moreover, clinical data is often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unfavorable safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. There is typically a high rate of failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products and there can be no assurance that any of our future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support clinical development of our current or any of our future product candidates.
We may experience delays in initiating or completing clinical trials. We also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any future clinical trials that we could conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our lead product candidates or any future product candidates, including:

regulators or institutional review boards, or IRBs, the FDA, or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective CROs as the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

clinical trial sites deviating from trial protocol or dropping out of a trial;

clinical trials of any product candidates may fail to show safety or efficacy, produce negative or inconclusive results and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or we may decide to abandon product development programs;

the number of subjects required for clinical trials of any product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or subjects may drop out of these clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;
 
9

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all, or may deviate from the clinical trial protocol or drop out of the trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;

we may elect to, or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require that we or our investigators, suspend or terminate clinical research or trials for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants in our trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;

the cost of clinical trials of any of our product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;

the quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be inadequate to initiate or complete a given clinical trial;

our inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical trials;

reports from clinical testing of other therapies may raise safety or efficacy concerns about our product candidates;

our failure to establish an appropriate safety profile for a product candidate based on clinical or preclinical data for such product candidate as well as data emerging from other studies or trials in the same class as our product candidate; and

the FDA or applicable foreign regulatory agencies may require us to submit additional data such as long-term toxicology studies, or impose other requirements before permitting us to initiate a clinical trial.
Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the number and location of clinical sites we enroll, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility and exclusion criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, the inability to obtain and maintain patient consents, the risk that enrolled participants will drop out before completion, competing clinical trials, and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or therapeutic biologics that may be approved for the indications being investigated by us. Furthermore, we expect to rely on our collaborators, CROs, and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials, including the patient enrollment process, and we have limited influence over their performance. Additionally, we could encounter delays if treating physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in future clinical trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.
We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, or the FDA or other regulatory authorities, or if a clinical trial is recommended for suspension or termination by the Data Safety Monitoring Board for such trial. A suspension or termination may be imposed due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product or treatment, failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions, or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Clinical studies may also be delayed or terminated as a result of ambiguous or negative interim results. Many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Further, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials, or may change the requirements for approval even after they have reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials.
Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing or marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may
 
10

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations significantly.
As an organization, we have no experience designing or implementing clinical trials. Failure to adequately design a trial, or incorrect assumptions about the design of the trial, could adversely affect the ability to initiate the trial, enroll patients, complete the trial, or obtain regulatory approval on the basis of the trial results, as well as lead to increased or unexpected costs.
The design and implementation of clinical trials is a complex process. While the employees who will implement our clinical trials have experience in the field, we, as an organization, have no experience designing and no experience implementing clinical trials, and we may not successfully or cost-effectively design and implement clinical trials that achieve our desired clinical endpoints efficiently, or at all. A clinical trial that is not well designed may delay or even prevent initiation of the trial, can lead to increased difficulty in enrolling patients, may make it more difficult to obtain regulatory approval for the product candidate on the basis of the study results, or, even if a product candidate is approved, could make it more difficult to commercialize the product successfully or obtain reimbursement from third-party payors. Additionally, a trial that is not well-designed could be inefficient or more expensive than it otherwise would have been, or we may incorrectly estimate the costs to implement the clinical trial, which could lead to a shortfall in funding.
Interim, topline, or preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data becomes available or as we make changes to our manufacturing processes and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publicly disclose interim, topline, or preliminary data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, which is based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations, and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. Further, modifications or improvements to our manufacturing processes for a therapy may result in changes to the characteristics or behavior of the product candidate that could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing clinical trials. As a result, the topline results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data has been received and fully evaluated. Topline data also remains subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data is available.
Preliminary or interim data from clinical trials is subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects. Additionally, disclosure of preliminary or interim data by us or by our competitors could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.
Further, others, including regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions, or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate, and our company in general. If the interim, topline, or preliminary data that we report differs from actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, any of our potential product candidates may be harmed, which could harm our business, operating results, prospects, or financial condition.
We may not be able to file our INDs to commence clinical trials on the timelines we expect, and even if we are able to, the FDA may not permit us to proceed.
We expect our pipeline to yield multiple INDs, including INDs for our CNTY-101, CNTY-103, and CNTY-102 product candidates from our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms. We cannot be sure that submission
 
11

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
of an IND will result in the FDA allowing testing and clinical trials to begin, or that, once begun, issues will not arise that suspend or terminate such clinical trials. The manufacturing of our product candidates remains an emerging and evolving field. Accordingly, we expect chemistry, manufacturing and control related topics, including product specifications, will be a focus of IND reviews, which may delay the clearance of INDs. Additionally, even if such regulatory authorities agree with the design and implementation of the clinical trials set forth in an IND or clinical trial application, we cannot guarantee that such regulatory authorities will not change their requirements in the future.
We are pursuing multiple programs and product candidates in our novel cell therapy development pipeline using an approach that is designed to enable rapid incorporation of new product features. If we elect to incorporate these new features into next-generation product candidates, this may render our existing product candidates obsolete, and we may devote our limited resources in pursuit of a particular program for which there is a greater potential for success and fail to capitalize on development opportunities or product candidates including those which may be more advanced in development.
We focus on the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer, including off-the-shelf NK- and T-cell product candidates derived from clonal master engineered iPSC lines. Because our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms are designed to enable rapid incorporation of novel functional product features in an evolving clinical setting, we may elect to incorporate these discoveries into next-generation product candidates that render our existing product candidates, including product candidates under clinical development, obsolete. Additionally, because we have limited financial and personnel resources, we may elect or be required to abandon or delay the pursuit of opportunities with existing or future product candidates, including those that may be more advanced in development than those we ultimately elect to pursue. Due to these factors, our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates and the scientific innovation arising from these expenditures may not yield commercially viable product candidates.
We intend to study our product candidates in patient populations with significant comorbidities that may result in deaths or serious adverse events or unacceptable side effects and require us to abandon or limit our clinical development activities.
Patients we intend to treat with our product candidates may also receive chemotherapy, radiation, and/or other cell therapy treatments in the course of treatment of their disease, and may therefore experience side effects or adverse events, including death, that are unrelated to our product candidates. While these side effects or adverse events may be unrelated to our product candidates, they may still affect the success of our clinical studies. The inclusion of critically ill patients in our clinical studies may result in deaths or other adverse medical events due to underlying disease or to other therapies or medications that such patients may receive. Any of these events could prevent us from advancing our product candidates through clinical development, and from obtaining regulatory approval, and would impair our ability to commercialize our product candidates. Any inability to advance our existing product candidates or any other product candidate through clinical development would have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may experience difficulties identifying and enrolling patients in our clinical trials. Difficulty in enrolling patients could delay or prevent clinical trials of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates.
Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical trials of CNTY-101 is critical to our success. The timing of our clinical trials depends in part on the speed at which we can recruit patients to participate in testing CNTY-101, and we may experience delays in our clinical trials if we encounter difficulties in enrollment. The eligibility criteria of our clinical trials may limit the pool of available study participants as it will require patients to have specific characteristics that we can measure to ensure their disease is either severe enough or not too advanced to include them in a clinical trial. The process of finding and diagnosing patients may prove costly. We also may not be able to identify, recruit, and enroll a sufficient number of appropriate patients to complete our clinical trials because of demographic criteria for prospective patients, the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study, the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients, and the patient referral practices of physicians. The availability and efficacy of competing therapies and clinical trials can also adversely impact enrollment. If patients are unwilling to participate in our trials for any reason, the
 
12

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
timeline for recruiting patients, conducting trials, and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products may be delayed, the commercial prospects of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenue from any of these product candidates could be delayed or prevented. Furthermore, our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials could result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs and jeopardize our ability to achieve our clinical development timeline and goals, including the dates by which we will commence, complete, and receive results from clinical trials. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may also jeopardize our ability to commence sales of and generate revenues from CNTY-101 or our other product candidates. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition, and prospects significantly.
CNTY-101 and our other product candidates may cause adverse events or undesirable side effects that could delay or prevent its regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.
Cell therapy is still a relatively new approach to disease treatment and adverse side effects could develop. There also is the potential risk of delayed adverse events following exposure to cell therapy products due to persistent biologic activity of the genetic material or other components of products used to carry the genetic material.
We are collecting data about CNTY-101 in preclinical studies and will continue to do so in clinical trials, if and when they begin. To date, we have only evaluated CNTY-101 in preclinical mouse models and we therefore do not know the side effect profile of our products in humans. Accordingly, we may experience unexpected side effects and/or higher levels of known side effects in clinical trials, including adverse events known in cell therapies. These include the potential for, among others, cytokine release syndrome, or CRS, and neurotoxicity, or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome. B-cell directed therapies may also demonstrate infusion reactions/hypersensitivity, serious infections, prolonged cytopenias, hypogammaglobulinemia/B-cell aplasia, and secondary malignancies.
Any adverse events or undesirable side effects caused by, or other unexpected properties of, CNTY-101 or our other product candidates could cause us, any future collaborators, an IRB, or ethics committee or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay, or halt clinical trials of our product candidates and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. It is possible that as we progress CNTY-101 or our other product candidates through preclinical and clinical development, or as the use of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates become more widespread if it receives regulatory approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts, and other adverse events that were not observed in preclinical studies or clinical trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected, will be reported by patients. If such side effects become known later in development or after approval, such findings may harm our business, financial condition, and prospects significantly. Further, if a serious safety issue is identified in connection with the use of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates commercially or in third-party clinical trials elsewhere, such issues may adversely affect the development potential of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates or result in regulatory authorities restricting our ability to develop or commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates.
Further, if CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates were to receive regulatory approval and we or others identify undesirable side effects caused by the product (or any other product) after the approval, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

regulatory authorities may request that we recall or withdraw the product from the market or may limit the approval of the product through labeling or other means;

regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as a “black box” warning or a contraindication or a precaution;

we may be required to change the way the product is distributed or administered, conduct additional clinical trials, or change the labeling of the product;

we may decide to recall or remove the product from the marketplace;
 
13

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

we could be sued and/or held liable for injury caused to individuals exposed to or taking our product candidates;

damage to the public perception of the safety of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates; and

our reputation may suffer.
Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidate and could substantially increase the costs of commercializing our product candidates and significantly impact our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and generate revenues, all of which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Public opinion and scrutiny of cell-based immuno-oncology therapies for treating cancer, or negative clinical trial results from our cell-based therapy competitors, may impact public perception of our company and product candidates, or impair our ability to conduct our business.
Our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms utilize a relatively novel technology involving the genetic modification of iPSC’s and utilization of those modified cells in other individuals, and no iNK cell-based immunotherapy has been approved to date. Public perception may be influenced by claims, such as claims that cell-based immunotherapy is unsafe, unethical, or immoral and, consequently, our approach may not gain the acceptance of the public or the medical community. Negative public reaction to cell-based immunotherapy in general, or negative clinical trial results from our cell-based therapy competitors, could result in greater government regulation and stricter labeling requirements of cell-based immunotherapy products, including any of our product candidates, and could cause a decrease in the demand for any products we may develop. Adverse public attitudes may adversely impact our ability to enroll clinical trials. More restrictive government regulations or negative public opinion could have an adverse effect on our business or financial condition and may delay or impair the development and commercialization of our product candidates or demand for any products we may develop.
Our research and development activities could be affected or delayed as a result of possible restrictions on animal testing.
Certain laws and regulations require us to test our product candidates on animals before initiating clinical trials involving humans. Animal testing activities have been the subject of controversy and adverse publicity. Animal rights groups and other organizations and individuals have attempted to stop animal testing activities by lobbying for legislation and regulation in these areas and by disrupting these activities through protests and other means. To the extent the activities of these groups are successful, our research and development activities may be interrupted, delayed, or become more expensive.
If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the time frames we announce and expect, the commercialization of our products may be delayed.
From time to time, we estimate the timing of the accomplishment of various scientific, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include the commencement or completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and the submission of regulatory filings, including IND submissions. From time to time, we may publicly announce the expected timing of some of these milestones. All of these milestones are, and will be, based on a variety of assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary significantly compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control. We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any future clinical trials that we conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates.
Changes in regulatory requirements, guidance from the FDA and other regulatory authorities, or unanticipated events during our clinical trials of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates may result in changes to preclinical studies or clinical trials or additional preclinical or clinical trial requirements, which could result in increased costs to us and could delay our development timeline.
Regulatory requirements governing biologic drug products, including cell therapy products, are still evolving and it is difficult to determine how long it will take or how much it will cost to obtain regulatory approvals for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates. Changes in regulatory requirements, FDA guidance or guidance from other
 
14

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
regulatory agencies, or unanticipated events during our preclinical studies or clinical trials may force us to terminate or adjust our development program.
In addition, the clinical trial requirements of the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities and the criteria these regulators use to determine the safety and efficacy of a product candidate vary substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty, intended use, and market of such product candidates. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as ours can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or more extensively studied product candidates. The FDA, or the applicable regulatory authorities, may impose additional preclinical or clinical trial requirements. Amendments to clinical trial protocols would require resubmission to the FDA, or the applicable regulatory authorities as well as IRBs and ethics committees for review and approval, which may adversely impact the cost, timing, or successful completion of a clinical trial. If we experience delays completing, or if we terminate, any of our clinical trials, or if we are required to conduct additional preclinical or clinical trials, the commercial prospects for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate product revenue will be delayed, and it would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In order to market any product outside of the United States, we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding biologic development and commercialization. The approval process varies from country to country and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from and be longer than that required to obtain FDA approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others.
Disruptions at the FDA and other government agencies caused by funding shortages or global health concerns could hinder their ability to hire, retain, or deploy key leadership and other personnel, or otherwise prevent new or modified products from being advanced, developed, cleared or approved, or commercialized in a timely manner or at all, which could negatively impact our business.
The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products or regulatory submissions can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, statutory, regulatory, and policy changes, the FDA’s ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, and other events, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that may otherwise affect the FDA’s ability to perform routine functions. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of other government agencies that fund research and development activities is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable. Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new biologics or modifications to cleared or approved biologics to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years, including for 35 days beginning on December 22, 2018, the United States government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, have had to furlough critical FDA employees and stop critical activities.
Separately, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, the FDA announced its intention to postpone most inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities, and on March 18, 2020, the FDA temporarily postponed routine surveillance inspections of domestic manufacturing facilities. Subsequently, on July 10, 2020, the FDA announced its intention to resume certain on-site inspections of domestic manufacturing facilities subject to a risk-based prioritization system. The FDA intends to use this risk-based assessment system to identify the categories of regulatory activity that can occur within a given geographic area, ranging from mission critical inspections to resumption of all regulatory activities. Regulatory authorities outside the United States may adopt similar restrictions or other policy measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, or if global health concerns continue to prevent the FDA or other regulatory authorities from conducting their regular inspections, reviews, or other regulatory activities, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA or other regulatory authorities to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
 
15

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct, supervise, and monitor our preclinical studies, and we will rely on third parties to conduct, supervise, and monitor future clinical trials for our product candidates.
We rely on third-party CROs, study sites, and others to conduct, supervise, and monitor our preclinical studies for our product candidates and we expect to rely on third parties to similarly conduct, supervise, and monitor any future clinical trials for our product candidates. We expect to continue to rely on third parties, such as CROs, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, and clinical investigators, to conduct our preclinical studies, and intend to rely on third parties in connection with the commencement of future clinical trials of our product candidates. Although we have agreements with these third parties governing their activities, we have limited influence over their actual performance and control only certain aspects of their activities. The failure of these third parties to successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, including as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, could substantially harm our business because we may be delayed in completing or unable to complete the studies required to support future approval of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, or we may not obtain marketing approval for, or commercialize, CNTY-101 and our other product candidates in a timely manner or at all. Moreover, these agreements might terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the third parties. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, our product development activities would be delayed and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may be materially harmed.
Our reliance on these third parties for development activities reduces our control over these activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory, and scientific standards and our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical trials and future clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for such trial. We must also ensure that our preclinical and future clinical trials are conducted in accordance with cGLP regulations, as appropriate. Moreover, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities require us to comply with cGCPs for conducting, recording, and reporting the results of clinical trials to ensure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. Regulatory authorities enforce these requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, clinical investigators, and trial sites. If we or any of our third parties fail to comply with applicable cGCPs or other regulatory requirements, we or they may be subject to enforcement or other legal actions, the data generated in our preclinical trials and future clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional studies.
In addition, we will be required to report certain financial interests of our third-party investigators if these relationships exceed certain financial thresholds or meet other criteria. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may question the integrity of the data from those clinical trials conducted by investigators who may have conflicts of interest.
We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials will comply with the applicable regulatory requirements. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product candidates that were produced under cGMP regulations. Failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. We also are required to register certain clinical trials and post the results of certain completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, www.clinicaltrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in enforcement actions and adverse publicity.
The third parties with which we work may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting trials or other therapeutic development activities that could harm our competitive position. In addition, such third parties are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our ongoing developmental and preclinical programs. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or conduct our preclinical studies or
 
16

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
future clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, if these parties are adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic limiting or materially affecting their ability to carry out their contractual duties, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our preclinical and future clinical trials may be repeated, extended, delayed, or terminated; we may not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for CNTY-101 and our other product candidates; we may not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates; or we or they may be subject to regulatory enforcement actions. As a result, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for CNTY-101 and our other candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed. To the extent we are unable to successfully identify and manage the performance of third-party service providers in the future, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may be materially harmed.
If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative providers or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional third parties involves additional cost and requires management’s time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new third party commences work. As a result, delays could occur, which could compromise our ability to meet our desired development timelines.
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on research programs, therapeutic platforms, and product candidates that we identify for specific indications. As a result, we may forego or delay our pursuit of opportunities with other therapeutic platforms or product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs, therapeutic platforms, and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights, including intellectual property rights, to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing, or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights.
We may explore strategic collaborations that may never materialize or we may be required to relinquish important rights to and control over the development and commercialization of our product candidates to any future collaborators.
Our business strategy includes leveraging our strategic partnership with FCDI, and may include additional future partnerships for manufacturing, product development, product commercialization, or other strategic objectives. As a result, we may in the future determine to collaborate with additional companies for development and potential commercialization of one or more therapeutic products. At the current time however, we cannot predict what form such a strategic collaboration might take. We are likely to face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic collaborators, and strategic collaborations can be complicated and time-consuming to negotiate and document.
We may not be able to negotiate strategic collaborations on acceptable terms, if at all. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. If we are unable to reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may have to curtail the development of a product candidate, reduce or delay one or more of our other development programs, delay our potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to fund and undertake development or commercialization activities
 
17

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
on our own, we may need to obtain additional expertise and additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we fail to enter into collaborations and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market or continue to develop our technology platforms and our business may be materially and adversely affected.
If and when we collaborate with a third party for development and commercialization of a product candidate, we can expect to relinquish some or all of the control over the future success of that product candidate to the third party. We are unable to predict when, if ever, we will enter into any strategic partnerships because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with establishing them, including:

expenditure of substantial operational, financial and management resources;

dilutive issuances of our securities;

substantial actual or contingent liabilities; and

termination or expiration of the arrangement, which would delay the development and may increase the cost of developing our product candidates.
Strategic partners may also delay clinical trials, experience financial difficulties, provide insufficient funding, terminate a clinical trial, or abandon a product candidate, which could negatively impact our development efforts. Additionally, strategic partners may not properly maintain, enforce, or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information in a manner that could jeopardize or invalidate our proprietary information or expose us to potential litigation, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial position, and operations.
If our collaborations do not result in the successful development and commercialization of products or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval, and commercialization described in this prospectus also apply to the activities of our program collaborators. Additionally, subject to its contractual obligations to us, if one of our collaborators is involved in a business combination, the collaborator may deemphasize or terminate the development or commercialization of any product candidate licensed to it by us. If our collaborator terminates its agreement with us, it may find it more difficult to attract new collaborators.
Risks related to manufacturing
The manufacture and distribution of our iPSC-derived cell product candidates is complex and subject to a multitude of risks. These risks could substantially increase our costs and limit the clinical and commercial supply of our product candidates.
The manufacture and supply of our product candidates involve novel processes that are more complex than those required for most drugs, biologics and other cellular immunotherapies and, accordingly, present significant challenges and are subject to multiple risks. These complex processes include reprogramming human somatic cells to obtain iPSCs, genetically engineering these iPSCs, and differentiating the iPSCs to obtain the desired product candidate. As a result of the complexities in manufacturing biologics and distributing cell therapies, the cost to manufacture and distribute biologics and cell therapies in general, and our cell product candidates in particular, is generally higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds. In addition, our cost of goods development is at an early stage. The actual cost to manufacture and process our product candidates could be greater than we expect and could materially and adversely affect the commercial viability of our product candidates.
We have no direct experience in the manufacture of cell-based therapies. We are still developing with third parties optimized and reproducible manufacturing processes for clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing of our product candidates, and none of our manufacturing processes have been validated for commercial production
 
18

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
of our product candidates. In addition, we are still optimizing our protocols for the supply and transport of our product candidates for distribution to clinical trial sites. Although we are working to develop reproducible and commercially viable manufacturing processes for our product candidates, and effective protocols for the supply and transport of our product candidates, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task.
We may make changes as we continue to develop and refine the manufacturing and distribution processes for our product candidates for clinical trials and commercialization, and we cannot be sure that even minor changes in these processes will not cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing and planned clinical trials or the performance of the product once commercialized. In some circumstances, changes in our manufacturing operations, including to our protocols, processes, materials, or facilities used, may require us to perform additional preclinical or comparability studies, or to collect additional clinical data from patients prior to undertaking additional clinical studies or filing for regulatory approval for a product candidate. These requirements may lead to delays in our clinical development and commercialization plans for our product candidates, and may increase our development costs substantially.
Cell-based therapies depend on the availability of reagents and specialized materials and equipment which in each case are required to be acceptable to the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies, and such reagents, materials, and equipment may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. We rely on third-party suppliers for various components, materials, and equipment required for the manufacture of our product candidates and do not have supply arrangements for certain of these components.
Manufacturing our product candidates requires many reagents and other specialty materials and equipment, some of which are manufactured or supplied by small companies with limited resources and experience to support commercial biologics production. To date, we and our clinical cell processing facilities and CMOs have purchased equipment, materials, and disposables, such as automated cell washing devices, automated cell warming units, commercially available media, and cell transfer and wash sets, used for the manufacture of our existing product candidates from third-party suppliers. Some of these suppliers may not have the capacity to support commercial products manufactured under cGMP by biopharmaceutical firms or may otherwise be ill-equipped to support our needs. Reagents and other key materials from these suppliers may have inconsistent attributes and introduce variability into our manufactured product candidates, which may contribute to variable patient outcomes and possible adverse events. We rely on the general commercial availability of materials required for the manufacture of our product candidates, and do not have supply contracts with many of these suppliers and may not be able to obtain supply contracts with them on acceptable terms or at all. Even if we are able to enter into such contracts, we may be limited to a sole third party for the supply of certain required components, including our pharmacologic modulators and components for our cell processing media. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business and operations of our suppliers may be disrupted or delayed, and we in turn may experience disruptions or delays in our supply chain. An inability to continue to source product from any of these suppliers, which could be due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory actions, or requirements affecting the supplier, adverse financial or other strategic developments experienced by a supplier, labor disputes or shortages, unexpected demands, or quality issues, could adversely affect our ability to satisfy demand for our product candidates, which could adversely and materially affect our product sales and operating results or our ability to conduct clinical trials, either of which could significantly harm our business.
If we are required to change suppliers, or modify the components, equipment, materials, or disposables used for the manufacture of our product candidates, we may be required to change our manufacturing operations or clinical trial protocols or to provide additional data to regulatory authorities in order to use any alternative components, equipment, materials, or disposables, any of which could set back, delay, or increase the costs required to complete our clinical development and commercialization of our product candidates. Additionally, any such change or modification may adversely affect the safety, efficacy, stability, or potency of our product candidates, and could adversely affect our clinical development of our product candidates and harm our business.
We currently rely on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for development, however, we intend to operate our own manufacturing facility in the future for the production of certain of our product candidates.
We currently do not operate manufacturing facilities and rely on FCDI for the manufacture of our product candidates and CMOs for the manufacture of related raw materials for clinical and preclinical development. If we
 
19

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
are unable to successfully construct our own manufacturing facilities, we expect to rely on third parties for commercial manufacture if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval. We have partnered with FCDI for the manufacture and supply of our product candidates for future clinical development, as well as to establish commercial supplies of our product candidates, if approved. If either of our Manufacturing Agreement or Master Collaboration Agreement with FCDI terminates, and if we need to enter into alternative arrangements, our product development activities would be delayed and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may be materially harmed. See “Business--Licensing, partnerships and collaboration—Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics, Inc.—Manufacturing and Supply Agreement” and “Business—Licensing, partnerships and collaboration—Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics, Inc.—Master Collaboration Agreement” for a description of our Manufacturing Agreement and Master Collaboration Agreement with FCDI. We are investing in the construction of our own 53,000 square foot cell therapy manufacturing facility in Branchburg, New Jersey, but there can be no assurance our manufacturing facility will become operational on schedule or at all.
The facilities used by us, FCDI, and any other manufacturers with which we may collaborate must be approved by the FDA pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit a BLA to the FDA. For manufacturing facilities in which we do not operate, we do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, CMOs for compliance with cGMP requirements for the manufacture of biologic products. If these CMOs cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. In addition, we have no control over the ability of CMOs to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance, and qualified personnel. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved. Our failure, or the failure of our CMO, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our product candidates.
Our or a CMO’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements, to do so on commercially reasonable terms and comply with cGMP could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including:

an inability to initiate or continue clinical trials of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates under development;

delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving marketing approvals, for our product candidates;

subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities or our manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities;

requirements to cease development or to recall batches of our product candidates; and

in the event of approval to market and commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates, an inability to meet commercial demands for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates.
Any performance failure on the part of us or our existing or future CMOs could delay clinical development or marketing approval, and any related remedial measures may be costly or time-consuming to implement. If our current CMOs cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers and we may be unable to replace them on a timely basis or at all.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon CMOs for the manufacture of our product candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
Delays in commissioning and receiving regulatory approvals for our manufacturing facilities could delay our development plans and thereby limit our ability to generate revenues.
We believe that internal cGMP manufacturing is important to facilitate clinical product supply, lower the risk of manufacturing disruptions, and enable more cost-effective manufacturing. We believe our Branchburg, New Jersey
 
20

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
facility, once complete, will allow us to supply certain of our product candidates needed for our early-stage clinical trials and preclinical studies. The design, construction, qualification, and regulatory approvals for such facilities require substantial capital and technical expertise and any delay could limit our development activities and our opportunities for growth, or negatively impact our financial results.
Furthermore, our manufacturing facility will be subject to ongoing, periodic inspection by the FDA and other comparable regulatory agencies to ensure compliance with cGMP. Our failure to follow and document our adherence to these regulations or other regulatory requirements may lead to significant delays in the availability of products for clinical use or may result in the termination of or a hold on a clinical study. Failure to comply with applicable regulations could also result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, a requirement to suspend or put on hold one or more of our clinical trials, failure of regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of our product candidates, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We also may encounter problems with the following:

complying with regulations regarding donor traceability, manufacturing, release of product candidates and other requirements from regulatory authorities outside the United States;

achieving adequate or clinical-grade materials that meet regulatory agency standards or specifications with consistent and acceptable production yield and costs;

bacterial, fungal, or viral contamination in our manufacturing facility; and

shortages of qualified personnel, raw materials, or key contractors.
Our product candidates, if approved by applicable regulatory authorities, may require significant commercial supply to meet market demand. In these cases, we may need to increase, or “scale up,” the production process by a significant factor over the initial level of production. If we fail to develop sufficient manufacturing capacity and experience, whether internally or with a third party, are delayed in doing so, or fail to manufacture our product candidates economically or on reasonable scale or volumes, or in accordance with cGMP, or if the cost of this scale-up is not economically feasible, our development programs and commercialization of any approved products will be materially adversely affected and we may not be able to produce our product candidates in a sufficient quantity to meet future demand and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects may be materially adversely affected.
We are dependent on third parties to store our CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells and master and working cell banks of the engineered iPSC cells.
The CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells and the master and working cell banks of the engineered iPSC cells are stored in freezers at third-party biorepositories and will also be stored in our freezers at our production facility if and when it becomes operational. If these materials are damaged at these facilities, including by the loss or malfunction of these freezers or our back-up power systems, as well as by damage from fire, power loss or other natural disasters, we would need to establish replacement CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells and master and working cell banks of the engineered iPSC cells, which would impact clinical supply and delay patient treatment. If we are unable to establish replacement materials, we could incur significant additional expenses and liability to patients whose treatment is delayed, and our business could suffer.
Risks related to commercialization of our product candidates
If we are unable to successfully commercialize CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
If we are successful in obtaining marketing approval from applicable regulatory authorities for CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates, our ability to generate revenues from such product candidates will depend on our success in:
 
21

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

launching commercial sales of our product candidates, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

receiving an approved label with claims that are necessary or desirable for successful marketing, and that does not contain safety or other limitations that would impede our ability to market our product candidates;

creating market demand for our product candidates through marketing, sales, and promotion activities;

hiring, training, and deploying a sales force or contracting with third parties to commercialize our product candidates;

manufacturing, either on our own or through third parties, product candidates in sufficient quantities and at acceptable quality and cost to meet commercial demand at launch and thereafter;

establishing and maintaining agreements with wholesalers, distributors, and group purchasing organizations on commercially reasonable terms;

creating partnerships with, or offering licenses to, third parties to promote and sell product candidates in foreign markets where we receive marketing approval;

obtaining, maintaining, protecting, and enforcing patent and trade secret protection and regulatory exclusivity for our product candidates;

achieving market acceptance of our product candidates by patients, the medical community, and third-party payors;

achieving appropriate reimbursement for our product candidates;

effectively competing with other therapies; and

maintaining an acceptable tolerability profile of our product candidates following launch.
To the extent we are not able to do any of the foregoing, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects will be materially harmed.
We face significant competition, and if our competitors develop product candidates more rapidly than we do or their product candidates are more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize products may be adversely affected.
The biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapid innovation, intense and dynamic competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary and novel products and product candidates. While we believe that our technology, scientific knowledge, and experience in the field of cellular immunotherapy provide us with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, governmental agencies, and public and private research institutions, as well as standard-of-care treatments, and new products undergoing development and combinations of existing and new therapies. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with existing therapies and new therapies, including combinations thereof, that may become available in the future. We compete with these organizations to recruit management, scientists, and clinical development personnel, which could negatively affect our level of expertise and our ability to execute our business plan. We will also face competition in establishing clinical trial sites, enrolling subjects for clinical trials, and in identifying and in-licensing new product candidates. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies.
We are developing off-the-shelf cell therapies by differentiating engineered iPSC into NK-, T-, or other immune cells for the treatment of various cancers. While we believe our genetically-engineered immune effector cell therapies derived from iPSC are highly differentiated, a number of companies are currently focused on the development of cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. In addition, because reprogramming technology and gene editing technology are available on a non-exclusive basis, the number of companies developing iPSC-derived products and products using gene editing technology is expected to increase, which will
 
22

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
increase competitive pressure on us. Moreover, the reprogramming technology licensed to us from FCDI and the gene editing technology licensed to us from Inscripta, Inc. are each licensed to us on a non-exclusive basis, and therefore third parties may obtain licenses to the same technology to compete with us.
Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and supply resources or experience than we do. If we successfully obtain approval for any product candidate, we will face competition based on many different factors, including the safety and effectiveness of our products, the ease with which our products can be administered and the extent to which patients accept relatively new routes of administration, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals for these products, the availability and cost of manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities, price, reimbursement coverage, and patent position. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being more effective, safer, more convenient, less expensive, or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Competitive products may make any products we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing our product candidates. If we are unable to compete effectively, our opportunity to generate revenue from the sale of our products we may develop, if approved, could be adversely affected.
We expect to face uncertainty regarding the pricing of our existing product candidates and any other product candidates that we may develop.
Due to the novel nature of our product candidates, we face significant uncertainty as to the pricing of any such products for which we may receive marketing approval. While we anticipate that pricing for any product candidates that we develop will be relatively high due to their anticipated use in the prevention or treatment of life-threatening diseases where therapeutic options are limited, the biopharmaceutical industry has recently experienced significant pricing pressures, including in the area of orphan drug products. In particular, drug pricing and other healthcare costs continue to be subject to intense political and societal pressures, which we anticipate will continue and escalate on a global basis. These pressures may result in harm to our business and reputation, cause our stock price to decline or experience periods of volatility, and adversely affect results of operations and our ability to raise funds.
In addition, we expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the pricing of any of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription medicines, medical devices and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the successful commercialization of new products. Further, the adoption and implementation of any future governmental cost containment or other health reform initiative may result in additional downward pressure on the price that we may receive for any approved product.
The insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for new products could limit our product revenues.
Our ability to commercialize any of our product candidates successfully will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from government health administration authorities, private health insurers, and other organizations. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new therapies are typically made by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, an agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services. CMS decides whether and to what extent a new therapy will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare, and private payors tend to follow CMS determinations to a substantial degree. The availability and extent of reimbursement by governmental and private payers is essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive treatments, such as cellular immunotherapy. There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products by government and third-party payers. In particular, there is no body of established practices and precedents
 
23

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
for reimbursement of cellular immunotherapies, and it is difficult to predict what the regulatory authority or private payer will decide with respect to reimbursement levels for novel products such as ours. Our products may not qualify for coverage or direct reimbursement, or may be subject to limited reimbursement. If reimbursement or insurance coverage is not available, or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be sufficient to allow us to establish or maintain pricing to generate income.
In addition, reimbursement agencies in foreign jurisdictions may be more conservative than those in the United States. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits. Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payers, in the United States and abroad, to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and level of reimbursement for new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate reimbursement for any products for which we receive marketing approval will adversely affect our ability to achieve commercial success, and could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize products, and our overall financial condition.
Even if we obtain regulatory and marketing approval for a product candidate, our product candidates will remain subject to regulatory oversight.
Even if we receive marketing and regulatory approval for CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates, regulatory authorities may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies. CNTY-101 and our other product candidates will also be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, and submission of safety and other post-market information. The FDA has significant post-market authority, including, for example, the authority to require labeling changes based on new safety information and to require post-market studies or clinical trials to evaluate serious safety risks related to the use of a biologic. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates may also be subject to a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS, limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including post-approval clinical trials, and surveillance to monitor the quality, safety, and efficacy of the product, all of which could lead to lower sales volume and revenue. For example, the holder of an approved BLA is obligated to monitor and report adverse events and any failure of a product to meet the specifications in the BLA. The holder of an approved BLA also must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain FDA approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. Advertising and promotional materials must comply with FDA rules and are subject to FDA review, in addition to other potentially applicable federal and state laws.
In addition, product manufacturers and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP requirements and adherence to commitments made in the BLA or foreign marketing application. If we, or a regulatory authority, discover(s) previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of that product, a regulatory authority may impose restrictions relative to that product, the manufacturing facility or us, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing.
If we or our contractors fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates, a regulatory authority may:

issue a warning letter asserting that we are in violation of the law;

request voluntary product recalls;

seek an injunction or impose administrative, civil, or criminal penalties or monetary fines;
 
24

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

suspend or withdraw regulatory approval;

suspend any ongoing clinical trials;

refuse to approve a pending BLA or comparable foreign marketing application (or any supplements thereto);

restrict the marketing or manufacturing of the product;

seize or detain the product or otherwise require the withdrawal of the product from the market;

refuse to permit the import or export of product candidates; or

refuse to allow us to enter into supply contracts, including government contracts.
Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Even if we receive marketing approval for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates, we may not achieve broad market acceptance.
The commercial success of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates, if developed and approved for marketing by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority, will depend upon the awareness and acceptance of CNTY-101 or such other product candidate among the medical community, including physicians, patients, advocacy groups, and healthcare payors. Market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved, will depend on a number of factors, including, among others:

the prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects associated with our product candidates;

limitations or warnings contained in the labeling approved for our product candidates by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authority, such as a “black box” warning;

availability of alternative treatments, including any competitive therapies in development that could be approved or commercially launched prior to approval of our product candidates;

the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

the strength of marketing and distribution support and timing of market introduction of competitive products;

pricing;

payor acceptance;

the impact of any future changes to the United States healthcare system;

the effectiveness of our sales and marketing strategies; and

the likelihood that the FDA may require development of a REMS, as a condition of approval or post-approval or may not agree with our proposed REMS or may impose additional requirements that limit the promotion, advertising, distribution, or sales of our product candidates.
If CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates are approved but do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by patients, advocacy groups, physicians and payors, we may not generate sufficient revenue to become or remain profitable and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. Our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors about the benefits of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful.
Even if we receive marketing approval for CNTY-101 or our other product candidates in the United States, we may never receive regulatory approval to market CNTY-101 or our other product candidates outside of the United States.
In order to market any product outside of the United States, we must establish and comply with the numerous and varying safety, efficacy, and other regulatory requirements of other jurisdictions, including potential additional
 
25

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
clinical trials and/or preclinical studies. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve additional testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approvals in other jurisdictions might differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. The marketing approval processes in other jurisdictions may implicate all of the risks detailed above regarding FDA approval in the United States as well as other risks. In particular, in many jurisdictions outside of the United States, products must receive pricing and reimbursement approval before the product can be commercialized. Obtaining this approval can result in substantial delays in bringing products to market in such jurisdictions. Marketing approval in one jurisdiction does not necessarily ensure marketing approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining marketing approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory process or commercial activities in others. Failure to obtain marketing approval in other jurisdictions or any delay or other setback in obtaining such approval would impair our ability to market a product candidate in such foreign markets. Any such impairment would reduce the size of our potential market, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
We may be unable to establish effective marketing, sales and distribution capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell CNTY-101 or our other product candidates, if approved.
We currently do not have a commercial infrastructure for the marketing, sale, and distribution of CNTY-101, or our other product candidates. If CNTY-101 or our other product candidates receive marketing approval, we intend to commercialize such product candidates in the United States and potentially in other geographies. In order to commercialize our products, we must build our marketing, sales, and distribution capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. We may not be successful in doing so. Should we decide to move forward in developing our own marketing capabilities, we may incur expenses prior to product launch or even approval in order to recruit a sales force and develop a marketing and sales infrastructure. If a commercial launch is delayed as a result of the FDA’s or comparable foreign regulatory authority’s requirements or for other reasons, we would incur these expenses prior to being able to realize any revenue from sales of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Even if we are able to effectively hire a sales force and develop a marketing and sales infrastructure, our sales force and marketing teams may not be successful in commercializing CNTY-101 or our other product candidates. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.
We may also or alternatively decide to collaborate with third-party marketing and sales organizations to commercialize any approved product candidates in the United States, in which event, our ability to generate product revenues may be limited. To the extent we rely on third parties to commercialize any products for which we obtain regulatory approval, we may receive less revenues than if we commercialized these products ourselves, which could materially harm our prospects. In addition, we would have less control over the sales efforts of any other third parties involved in our commercialization efforts, and could be held liable if they failed to comply with applicable legal or regulatory requirements.
We have no prior experience in the marketing, sale, and distribution of biopharmaceutical products, and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a commercial infrastructure. The establishment and development of commercial capabilities, including compliance plans, to market any products we may develop will be expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch, and we may not be able to successfully develop this capability. We will have to compete with other biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies to recruit, hire, train, manage, and retain marketing and sales personnel, which is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. Developing our sales capabilities may also divert resources and management attention away from product development.
In the event we are unable to develop a marketing and sales infrastructure, we may not be able to commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates in the United States or elsewhere, which could limit our ability to generate product revenues and materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
 
26

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
If the market opportunities for our products are smaller than we believe they are, our revenue may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.
Cancer therapies are sometimes characterized as first-line, second-line, or third-line, and the FDA often approves new therapies initially only for third-line use. When cancer is detected early enough, first-line therapy, usually chemotherapy, hormone therapy, surgery, radiation therapy, or a combination of these, is sometimes adequate to cure the cancer or prolong life without a cure. Second- and third-line therapies are administered to patients when prior therapy is not effective. Initial planned clinical trials are expected to enroll patients who have received other available therapies in order to first evaluate whether the product is safe and whether there is any activity. We do not know at this time whether CNTY-101 or any of our other product candidates will be safe for use in humans or whether they will demonstrate any anti-cancer activity. Subsequently, we plan to conduct additional clinical trials depending on the activity we note in the initial clinical trials. If the activity is sufficient, we may initially seek approval of any product candidates we develop as a therapy for patients who have received one or more prior treatments. Subsequently, for those products that prove to be sufficiently beneficial, if any, we would expect to seek approval potentially in earlier lines of therapy, but there is no guarantee that product candidates we develop, even if approved for later lines of therapy, would be approved for earlier lines of therapy, and, prior to any such approvals, we may have to conduct additional clinical trials.
We focus our research and product development on differentiating engineered iPSC into NK-, T-, or other immune cells for the treatment of various cancers. Our projections of both the number of people who have these cancers, as well as the subset of people with these cancers who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including the scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new trials may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of such cancers. The total addressable market across all of our product candidates will ultimately depend upon, among other things, the diagnosis criteria included in the final label for each of our product candidates approved for sale for these indications, the availability of alternative treatments and the safety, convenience, cost, and efficacy of our product candidates relative to such alternative treatments, acceptance by the medical community and patient access, drug and biologic pricing, and reimbursement. The number of patients in the United States and other major markets and elsewhere may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business.
Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or any guidance we may provide.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to:

the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research, development, regulatory approval, and commercialization activities relating to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, which may change from time to time;

coverage and reimbursement policies with respect to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, if approved, and potential future drugs or biologics that compete with our products;

the cost of manufacturing CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, which may vary depending on the quantity of production and the terms of our agreements with CMOs;

the timing and amount of the milestone or other payments we must make to the licensors and other third parties from whom we have in-licensed or acquired our product candidates;

the level of demand for any approved products, which may vary significantly;

future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies; and
 
27

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners.
The cumulative effects of these factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any forecasts we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated revenue or earnings guidance we may provide.
Risks related to employee matters, managing growth and other risks related to our business
We are dependent on the services of our management and other clinical and scientific personnel, and if we are not able to retain these individuals or recruit additional management or clinical and scientific personnel, our business will suffer.
Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, retain, and motivate highly qualified management, clinical, and scientific personnel, many of whom have been instrumental for us and have substantial experience with our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms, underlying technologies, and related product candidates. Given the specialized nature of our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms and the fact that ours is a novel and emerging field, there is an inherent scarcity of experienced personnel in this field. As we continue developing our product candidates in our pipeline, we will require personnel with medical, scientific, or technical qualifications specific to each program.
We are highly dependent upon our senior management, particularly Osvaldo Flores, Ph.D., our Chief Executive Officer, as well as our senior scientists and other members of our executive team. The loss of services of any of these individuals could delay or prevent the successful development of our product pipeline, initiation or completion of our planned clinical trials, or the commercialization of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. We have executed employment agreements or offer letters with each member of our senior management team, these agreements are terminable at will with or without notice and, therefore, we may not be able to retain their services as expected. We do not currently maintain “key person” life insurance on the lives of our executives or any of our employees. This lack of insurance means that we may not have adequate compensation for the loss of the services of these individuals.
Our research and development programs, clinical operations, and sales and marketing efforts depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled scientists, engineers, and sales professionals. The competition for qualified personnel in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries is intense, and we have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications on acceptable terms, or at all. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do, and any of our employees may terminate their employment with us at any time. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may attempt to assert that these employees or we have breached legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources, and potentially, damages. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the stock awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived benefits of our stock awards decline, it may harm our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects would be harmed.
 
28

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
We will need to increase the size and capabilities of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing our growth.
As of April 30, 2021, we had 107 employees and consultants and most of our employees are full-time. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, and as we transition into operating as a public company, we must add a significant number of additional managerial, operational, financial, and other personnel. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:

identifying, recruiting, integrating, maintaining, and motivating additional employees;

managing our internal development efforts effectively, including the clinical and FDA or other comparable authority review process for CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, while complying with our contractual obligations to contractors and other third parties; and

improving our operational, financial, and management controls, reporting systems, and procedures.
Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, if approved, will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth, and our management may also have to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from day-to-day activities in order to devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. In addition, we expect to incur additional costs in hiring, training, and retaining such additional personnel.
If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize CNTY-101 and our other product candidates and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, and commercialization goals.
The COVID-19 pandemic, or a similar pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, may materially and adversely affect our business and our financial results and could cause a disruption to the development of our product candidates.
Public health crises, such as pandemics or similar outbreaks, could adversely impact our business. A novel virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CpV-2 or coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 has spread to most countries across the world, including all 50 states within the United States and Canadian Provinces, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Hamilton, Ontario where our operations are located, and Madison, Wisconsin, where the manufacturing site for our product candidates is located. The coronavirus pandemic is evolving and has led to the implementation of various responses, including government-imposed quarantines, travel restrictions, and other public health safety measures. The extent to which the coronavirus impacts our operations or those of our consultants and collaborators, including FCDI, will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of the outbreak, new information that will emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus, new strains or mutations of the coronavirus, and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among others. In response to the spread of COVID-19, we have closed our executive offices with our administrative employees continuing their work outside of our offices and limited the number of staff in any given research and development laboratory and have taken other precautionary measures as well, including the periodic testing of our employees. We have experienced modest delays in our discovery and development activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to temporary and partial shutdowns at certain of our CROs and academic institutions that have since resumed operations, and due to the Pennsylvania, Washington, and Ontario stay-at-home orders.
Potential disruptions to our preclinical development efforts include, but are not limited to:

delays or disruptions in preclinical experiments and IND-enabling studies due to restrictions of on-site staff, limited or no access to animal facilities, and unforeseen circumstances at contract research organizations (CROs) and vendors;

limitations on employee or other resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our preclinical work, including because of sickness of employees or their families, the desire of employees to avoid travel or
 
29

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
contact with large groups of people, an increased reliance on working from home, school closures, or mass transit disruptions; and

delays in necessary interactions with regulators, ethics committees, and other important agencies and contractors.
We have not yet commenced clinical trial activities for any of our product candidates. If we commence clinical trials for one or more of our product candidates, potential disruptions of those clinical activities as a result of COVID-19 or similar pandemics include, but are not limited to the interruption of key clinical trial activities, enrolling patients in clinical trials, interruption of, or delays in receiving, supplies of our product candidates, regulatory delays, changes in regulations as part of a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and additional delays, difficulties, or interruptions as a result of current or future shutdowns.
The COVID-19 global pandemic continues to rapidly evolve. Although many countries, including certain countries in Europe and the United States, have re-opened, rises in new cases have caused certain countries to re-initiate restrictions. The extent to which the outbreak may affect our preclinical studies, clinical trials, business, financial condition, and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time, such as the ultimate geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, travel restrictions, the availability of vaccines, and actions to contain the outbreak or treat its impact. Additionally, we are unable to predict if a different pandemic could have similar or different impacts on our business, financial condition, or share price. Future developments in these and other areas present material uncertainty and risk with respect to our clinical trials, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We have incurred indebtedness, and we may incur additional indebtedness, which could adversely affect our business.
As of April 30, 2021, we had an outstanding balance of $10.0 million under our Loan and Security Agreement with Hercules Capital, Inc., or the Loan Agreement. Our indebtedness could have important consequences to our stockholders. For example, it:

increases our vulnerability to adverse general economic and industry conditions;

limits our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business or the industries in which we operate by restricting our ability to make acquisitions, investments or divestments, or take other corporate actions quickly; and

limits our ability to obtain additional financing or refinancing in the future for working capital, clinical trials, research and development, or other purposes.
Any of the above-listed factors could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. The Loan Agreement also contains certain financial and other covenants, including limitations on, among other things, additional indebtedness, out licensing, paying dividends in certain circumstances, and making certain acquisitions and investments. Any failure to comply with the terms, covenants and conditions of the Loan Agreement may limit our ability to draw upon additional tranches of term loans and may result in an event of default under such agreement, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are subject to various foreign, federal, and state healthcare and privacy laws and regulations, and our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could harm our results of operations and financial condition.
Our business operations and current and future arrangements with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, and customers expose us to broadly applicable foreign, federal and state fraud and abuse, and other healthcare and privacy laws and regulations. These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell, and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing approval. Such laws include:
 
30

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons, or entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving, or providing any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or certain rebates), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in-kind, in return for, either the referral of an individual or the purchase, lease, or order, or arranging for or recommending the purchase, lease, or order of any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the civil False Claims Act;

the federal false claims and civil monetary penalties laws, including the civil False Claims Act, which prohibits, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment or approval that are false or fraudulent, knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim, or from knowingly making or causing to be made a false statement to avoid, decrease, or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;

the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, or knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement, in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items, or services. Similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, and their implementing regulations, also impose obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security, and transmission of individually identifiable health information without appropriate authorization by covered entities subject to the rule, such as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and certain healthcare providers as well as their business associates that perform certain services for or on their behalf involving the use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information;

the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics, and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually to the CMS information related to payments and other “transfers of value” made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, and chiropractors) and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by the physicians described above and their immediate family members;

the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, which prohibits companies and their intermediaries from making, or offering or promising to make improper payments to non-United States officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or otherwise seeking favorable treatment; and

analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to our business practices, including but not limited to, research, distribution, sales, and marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non- governmental third-party payors, including private insurers, or by the patients themselves; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government, or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; state laws and regulations that require drug and biologic manufacturers to file reports relating to pricing and marketing information or which require tracking gifts and other remuneration and items of value provided to physicians, other healthcare providers and entities; state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives; state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA; state and foreign governments
 
31

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
that have enacted or proposed requirements regarding the collection, retention, distribution, use, security, sharing, transfer, storage, and other processing of personally identifiable information and other data relating to individuals (including the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or GDPR, and the California Consumer Protection Act, or CCPA), and federal and state consumer protection laws are being applied to enforce regulations related to the online collection, use, and dissemination of data, thus complicating compliance efforts.
Ensuring that our internal operations and business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations involves substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices, including any consulting and advisory board arrangements with physicians and other healthcare providers, do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance, or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental laws and regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal, and administrative penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from United States government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, or similar programs in other countries or jurisdictions, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, additional reporting requirements, and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of noncompliance with these laws, diminished profits, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Further, defending against any such actions can be costly, time-consuming, and may require significant financial and personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired. If any of the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found to not be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil, or administrative sanctions, including exclusion from government funded healthcare programs and imprisonment. If any of the above occur, it could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Healthcare legislation, including potentially unfavorable pricing regulations or other healthcare reform initiatives, may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates.
The commercial potential for our approved products, if any, could be affected by changes in healthcare spending and policy in the United States and abroad. We operate in a highly regulated industry. New laws, regulations, or judicial decisions, or new interpretations of existing laws, regulations or decisions, related to healthcare availability, the method of delivery or payment for healthcare products, and services could adversely affect our business, operations, and financial condition. The United States and many foreign jurisdictions have enacted or proposed legislative and regulatory changes affecting the healthcare system that may affect our ability to profitably sell our products and product candidates, if approved. The United States government, state legislatures, and foreign governments also have shown significant interest in implementing cost-containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid healthcare costs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement, and requirements for substitution of generic products for branded prescription drugs and biologics.
The ACA was intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add transparency requirements for the healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry, and impose additional health policy reforms. There have been significant ongoing administrative, executive, and legislative efforts to modify or eliminate the ACA. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted on December 22, 2017, repealed the shared responsibility payment for individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential coverage under section 5000A of the Code, commonly referred to as the individual mandate. The Trump administration issued executive orders which sought to reduce burdens associated with the ACA and modified how it was implemented. Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since passage of the ACA. The ACA has also been subject to challenges in the courts. On December 14, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by the United States Congress, or Congress. On December 18, 2019, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that the individual mandate is unconstitutional
 
32

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
and remanded the case to the Texas District Court to reconsider its earlier invalidation of the entire ACA. An appeal was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court which heard oral arguments in the case on November 10, 2020. A ruling is expected in 2021.
Further changes to and under the ACA remain possible, although the new Biden administration has signaled that it plans to build on the ACA and expand the number of people who are eligible for subsidies under it. President Biden indicated that he intends to use executive orders to undo changes to the ACA made by the Trump administration and would advocate for legislation to build on the ACA. It is unknown what form any such changes or any law proposed to replace the ACA would take, and how or whether it may affect our business in the future. We expect that changes to the ACA, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, changes allowing the federal government to directly negotiate drug and biologic prices, and changes stemming from other healthcare reform measures, especially with regard to healthcare access, financing, or other legislation in individual states, could have a material adverse effect on the healthcare industry.
The Budget Control Act of 2011 has resulted in reductions in spending on certain government programs, including aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to healthcare providers of up to 2.0% per fiscal year. These reductions have been extended until 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken.
Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid, or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payers. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain and maintain profitability of our product and product candidates, if approved.
We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we or our collaborators are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we or our collaborators are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, CNTY-101 or any future product candidates may lose any marketing approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired.
We are required to maintain internal controls over financial reporting. Commencing with our fiscal year ending the year after this offering is completed, we must perform system and process design evaluation and testing of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for that year, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This will require that we incur substantial additional professional fees and internal costs to expand our accounting and finance functions and that we expend significant management efforts. Prior to this offering, we have never been required to test our internal controls within a specified period and, as a result, we may experience difficulty in meeting these reporting requirements in a timely manner. In addition, if we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect our business.
If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, if our independent registered public accounting firm determines that we have a material weakness or a significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, or we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. As a result, our investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, the market price of our stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
We believe that any internal controls and procedures, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. We may discover
 
33

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
weaknesses in our system of internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that could result in a material misstatement of our financial statements. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. For example, our directors or executive officers could inadvertently fail to disclose a new relationship or arrangement causing us to fail to make a required related party transaction disclosure. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and may not be detected.
We, or our CMOs or suppliers, may use potent chemical agents and hazardous materials, and any claims relating to improper handling, storage or disposal of these materials could be time-consuming or costly.
We, or our CMOs or suppliers, including FCDI, use biological materials, potent chemical agents and may use hazardous materials, including chemicals and biological agents and compounds that could be dangerous to human health and safety of the environment. The operations of our CMOs and suppliers also produce hazardous waste products. Federal, state, and local laws and regulations govern the use, generation, manufacture, storage, handling, and disposal of these materials and wastes. Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and current or future environmental laws and regulations may impair our product development efforts.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, which have tended to become more stringent over time. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties, or other sanctions or liabilities, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our products.
We are exposed to potential product liability and professional indemnity risks that are inherent in the research, development, manufacturing, marketing, and use of pharmaceutical products. While we currently have no product candidates that have commenced clinical trials or been approved for commercial sale, the future use of product candidates by us in clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products in the future, may expose us to liability claims. For example, we may be sued if CNTY-101 and our other product candidates allegedly cause injury or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing. or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product candidate, negligence, strict liability, and a breach of warranties. Claims may be brought against us by clinical trial participants, patients, or others using, administering or selling products that may be approved in the future. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts.
If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit or cease the commercialization of our products. Even a successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

decreased demand for our products;

injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;

withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials;

initiation of investigations by regulators;
 
34

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

costs to defend the related litigation;

a diversion of management’s time and our resources;

substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing, or promotional restrictions;

significant negative financial impact;

exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;

the inability to commercialize CNTY-101 or our other product candidates; and

a decline in our stock price.
We currently hold product liability coverage in an amount we consider reasonable. We may need to increase our insurance coverage as we expand our clinical trials or if we commence commercialization of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. Our inability to obtain and retain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of CNTY-101 or our other product candidates. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies will also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We may have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts.
We may be unable to adequately protect our or our vendors’ information systems from cyberattacks or other incidents, which could result in the disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, including personal data, damage our reputation, and subject us to significant financial and legal exposure.
We rely on information technology systems that we or our third-party providers operate to process, transmit, and store electronic information in our day-to-day operations. In connection with our product discovery efforts, we may collect and use a variety of personal data, such as names, mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and clinical trial information. Despite our implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems, and those of our CROs, CMOs, information technology suppliers, and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, cyberattacks, and other unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war, and telecommunication and electrical failures. Additionally, our security measures or those of our vendors could be breached as a result of employee theft, exfiltration, misuse, malfeasance, or unintentional events. A successful cyberattack or other data security incident could result in the theft or destruction of intellectual property, data, or other misappropriation of assets, or otherwise compromise our confidential or proprietary information and disrupt our operations. Cyberattacks could include wrongful conduct by hostile foreign governments, industrial espionage, wire fraud, and other forms of cyber fraud, the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service, social engineering fraud, or other means to threaten data security, confidentiality, integrity and availability. A successful cyberattack could cause serious negative consequences for us, including, without limitation, the disruption of operations, the misappropriation of confidential business information, including financial information, trade secrets, financial loss, and the disclosure of corporate strategic plans. Although we devote resources to protect our information systems, we realize that cyberattacks are a threat, and there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent information security breaches that would result in business, legal, financial, or reputational harm to us, or would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches or improper access to, use of, or disclosure of our clinical data or patients’ personal data could result in significant liability under state (e.g., state breach notification laws), federal (e.g., HIPAA, as amended by HITECH), and international law (e.g., the GDPR) and may cause a material adverse impact to our reputation, affect our ability to conduct new studies and potentially disrupt our business.
 
35

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
We rely on our third-party providers to implement effective security measures and identify and correct for any such failures, deficiencies or breaches. If we or our third-party providers fail to maintain or protect our information technology systems and data integrity effectively or fail to anticipate, plan for, or manage significant disruptions to our information technology systems, we or our third-party providers could have difficulty preventing, detecting, and controlling such cyberattacks and any such attacks could result in the losses described above as well as disputes with physicians, patients and our partners, regulatory sanctions, or penalties, increases in operating expenses, expenses or lost revenues or other adverse consequences, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, prospects, and cash flows. Any failure by such third parties to prevent or mitigate security breaches or improper access to or disclosure of such information could have similarly adverse consequences for us. If we are unable to prevent or mitigate the impact of such security or data privacy breaches, we could be exposed to litigation and governmental investigations, which could lead to a potential disruption to our business.
We also cannot be certain that our existing insurance coverage will cover any claims against us relating to any security incident or breach, will be available in sufficient amounts to cover the potentially significant losses that may result from a security incident or breach, will continue to be available on acceptable terms or at all or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Failure to comply with current or future federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations and industry standards relating to privacy and data protection laws could lead to government enforcement actions (which could include civil or criminal penalties), private litigation, and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business.
We or our collaborators may be subject to federal, state, and foreign data privacy and security laws and regulations. In the United States, numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including federal health information privacy laws, state data breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws, govern the collection, use, disclosure, storage, transfer, protection, and other processing of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our collaborators. Many state legislatures have adopted legislation that regulates how businesses operate online, including measures relating to privacy, data security, and data breaches, and laws in all 50 states require businesses to provide notice to customers whose personally identifiable information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. Such laws are not consistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread data breach is costly. By way of example, the CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, creates individual privacy rights for California consumers and increases the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal data. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability, and many similar laws have been proposed at the federal level and in other states. Additionally, a new privacy law, the California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA, was approved by California voters in the election of November 3, 2020. The CPRA, which will take effect in most material respects on January 1, 2023, modifies the CCPA significantly, potentially resulting in further uncertainty and requiring us to incur additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply.
Foreign data protection laws, including the GDPR, may also apply to health-related and other personal information obtained outside of the United States. The GDPR went into effect in the EU in May 2018 and introduced strict requirements for processing the personal data of European Union data subjects. Companies that must comply with the GDPR face increased compliance obligations and risk, including more robust regulatory enforcement of data protection requirements and potential fines for noncompliance of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenues of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater. Among other requirements, the GDPR regulates transfers of personal data subject to the GDPR to third countries that have not been found to provide adequate protection to such personal data, including the United States, and the efficacy and longevity of current transfer mechanisms between the European Union and the United States remains uncertain. For example, in 2016, the
 
36

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
European Union and United States agreed to a transfer framework for data transferred from the European Union to the United States called the Privacy Shield, but the Privacy Shield was invalidated in July 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Further, the vote in the United Kingdom in favor of exiting the European Union, referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has transposed the GDPR into domestic law with a United Kingdom version of the GDPR that took effect in January 2021, which could expose us to two parallel regimes, each of which potentially authorizes similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for violations. In addition, it is still unclear whether transfer of data from the European Economic Area to the United Kingdom will remain lawful under the GDPR. On December 24, 2020, the United Kingdom and European Union entered into a Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides for a transitional period during which the United Kingdom will be treated like an European Union member state in relation to processing and transfers of personal data for four months from January 1, 2021. This may be extended by two further months. After such period, the United Kingdom will be a “third country” under the GDPR unless the European Commission adopts an adequacy decision in respect of transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom.
Compliance with United States and foreign data protection laws and regulations could require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to collect, use and disclose data, or in some cases, impact our ability to operate in certain jurisdictions. Failure by us or our collaborators to comply with United States and foreign data protection laws and regulations could result in government enforcement actions (which could include civil or criminal penalties), private litigation, and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business. Moreover, clinical trial subjects about whom we or our potential collaborators obtain information, as well as the providers who share this information with us, may contractually limit our ability to use and disclose the information. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights, failed to comply with data protection laws or breached our contractual obligations, even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend, could result in adverse publicity and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, CROs, consultants, and vendors, may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, CROs, consultants, and vendors may engage in misconduct or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless, and/or negligent conduct or disclosure of unauthorized activities to us that violate: (1) the laws and regulations of the FDA and other similar regulatory requirements, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete, and accurate information to such authorities, (2) manufacturing standards, including cGMP requirements, (3) federal and state data privacy, security, fraud and abuse, and other healthcare laws and regulations in the United States and abroad or (4) laws that require the true, complete, and accurate reporting of financial information or data. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, the creation of fraudulent data in our preclinical studies or clinical trials, or illegal misappropriation of drug or biologic product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. In addition, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business and financial results, including, without limitation, the imposition of significant civil, criminal, and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, disgorgements, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, individual imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity
 
37

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
agreement, or similar agreement to resolve allegations of noncompliance with these laws, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Risks related to our intellectual property
We do not currently own any issued patents or non-provisional patent applications relating to our product candidates.
Given the early stage of development of our product candidates, our patent portfolio is similarly at a very early stage. In particular, we do not own any issued patents or non-provisional patent applications, and we have not filed any patent applications related to our product candidates other than CNTY-101. If we do not obtain meaningful patent coverage for our product candidates, their respective components, formulations, combination therapies, methods used to manufacture them, and methods of treatment, competitors may be able to erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which would likely harm our business and ability to achieve profitability. To establish our proprietary position, we have filed provisional patent applications in the United States related to CNTY-101 and other aspects of our technology. However, United States provisional patent applications are not eligible to become issued patents unless and until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of filing of one or more of our related provisional patent applications. With regard to such United States provisional patent applications, if we do not timely file any non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in our provisional patent applications. While we intend to timely file non-provisional patent applications relating to our provisional patent applications, we cannot predict whether any such patent applications will result in the issuance of patents that provide us with any competitive advantage. If we are unable to secure or maintain patent protection with respect to our antibody technology and any proprietary products and technology we develop, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be materially harmed.
If any of our license agreements with FCDI or our other licensors, including iCELL Inc. and the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and McMaster University, are terminated, we could lose our rights to key components enabling our iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapy platforms.
Our commercial success will depend in part on the maintenance of our license agreements. In September 2018, we entered into an exclusive license with FCDI, pursuant to which we have received an exclusive license to certain patents and know-how related to the differentiation of iPSC cells into immune-effector cells in the field of cancer immunotherapeutics, or the Differentiation License, and a non-exclusive license for the rights to certain patents and know-how related to the reprogramming of human somatic cells to iPSCs in the field of cancer immunotherapeutics, or the Reprogramming License, and together with the Differentiation License, the FCDI Licenses. A critical aspect to manufacturing our product candidates involves the reprogramming of certain cells into iPSCs and the differentiation of iPSCs into immune cells. We utilize technology licensed from FCDI to reprogram cells to become iPSCs and to differentiate the iPSCs to generate different immune cell types including NK cells and T cells. By utilizing this licensed technology, we are currently capable of achieving fully functional iNK cells from iPSCs in approximately 30 days.
We have also entered into an exclusive sublicense, or the iCELL Sublicense, with iCELL Inc., or iCELL, for certain patents related to an immune function reconstruction method using multipotent stem cells and the method for producing antigen specific T-cells, and acquired a license agreement from Empirica Therapeutics, or the Empirica License, pursuant to which we receive an exclusive license from the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and the McMaster University under certain patents and antibody sequences and related intellectual property rights and know-how to, among other things, reproduce, manufacture and commercialize certain CD-133 related antibody and antibody sequence-derived technology.
The FCDI Licenses and certain of our other license agreements, including the iCELL Sublicense and Empirica License, impose, and future license agreements may impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty, and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with our obligations under the FCDI Licenses, our other license
 
38

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
agreements, or any future license agreements with any party, or we are subject to a bankruptcy, the licensor may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we would not be able to develop products covered by such license.
If, for any reason, the FCDI Licenses or any of our other license agreements are terminated or we otherwise lose the rights under such agreements, it would adversely affect our business. If we breach any material obligations under the FCDI Licenses or any of our other license agreements, FCDI or the applicable licensor may have the right to terminate our license, which could result in us being unable to develop, manufacture, or sell our product candidates that incorporate the intellectual property subject to such license. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patents fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors would have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours. In addition, we may seek to obtain additional licenses from our licensors and, in connection with obtaining such licenses, we may agree to amend our existing licenses in a manner that may be more favorable to the licensors, including by agreeing to terms that could enable third parties (potentially including our competitors) to receive licenses to a portion of the intellectual property that is subject to our existing licenses. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects, and we may be required to identify and license replacement technology from third parties, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all.
For a more complete description of the FCDI Licenses and our other licenses, please see the section titled “Business—Licensing, Partnerships and Collaborations” in this prospectus.
We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary intellectual property rights in the future for the development of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates.
We may in the future enter into additional license agreements with third parties for other intellectual property rights or assets to advance our research or allow commercialization of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, and we cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist which might be enforced against CNTY-101 and our other product candidates in the absence of such a license. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Even if we are able to obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive or may not provide exclusive rights to use such intellectual property and technology in all relevant fields of use and in all territories, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to develop or license replacement technology, which may not be feasible on a technical or commercial basis. If we are unable to do so, we may be unable to develop or commercialize the affected product candidates, which could materially harm our business and the third parties owning such intellectual property rights could seek either an injunction prohibiting our sales, or, with respect to our sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties and/or other forms of compensation. Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business and involves complex legal, business, and scientific issues. Disputes may arise between us and our licensors regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including:

the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues, the resolution of which could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement;

whether and the extent to which our technology and processes infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;

our right to sublicense patents and other intellectual property rights to third parties;

our diligence obligations with respect to the use of the licensed technology in relation to our development and commercialization of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;

our right to transfer or assign the license; and

the ownership of inventions, know-how, and other intellectual property resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners.
 
39

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
If disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms, we may not be able to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
In addition, certain of our agreements may limit or delay our ability to consummate certain transactions, may impact the value of those transactions, or may limit our ability to pursue certain activities. For example, if we choose to sublicense or assign to any third parties our rights under our existing license agreements with respect to any licensed product, we may be required to pay a specified percentage of all revenue to be received in connection with such transaction.
Under one of the FCDI Licenses and certain other in-licenses under which we sublicense certain rights related to our technology, we rely on FCDI and our other sublicensors to comply with their obligations under their upstream license agreements where we may have no relationship with the original licensor of such rights. If our sublicensors fail to comply with their obligations under their upstream license agreements, and the upstream license agreements are consequently terminated, such termination may result in the termination of our sublicenses and loss of such rights.
For a more complete description of the FCDI Licenses, please see the section titled “Business—License Agreements” in this prospectus.
Our success depends on our ability to obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce our intellectual property and our proprietary technologies.
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary technologies, including patent protection and trade secret protection for CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses as well as our ability to operate without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others. If we are unable to obtain, maintain, protect, or enforce our intellectual property rights or if our intellectual property rights are inadequate for our technology or our product candidates, our competitive position could be harmed, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial conditions, and prospects. Although we have filed provisional patent applications with respect to CNTY-101 and other aspects of our product technology, our patent portfolio is in an earlier stage of prosecution, and we have not filed any patent applications related to our product candidates other than CNTY-101. We do not own any issued patents related to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Our patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless, and until, patents are issued from such applications, and then only to the extent the issued claims cover the technology. There can be no assurance that our patent applications will result in patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against competitors with similar technology, nor can there be any assurance that the patents if issued will not be infringed, misappropriated, violated, designed around or invalidated by third parties. Even issued patents may later be found invalid or unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings instituted by third parties before various patent offices or in courts. The degree of future protection for our intellectual property and proprietary rights is uncertain. Only limited protection may be available and may not adequately obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. These uncertainties and/or limitations in our ability to properly obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce the intellectual property rights relating to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Because CNTY-101 is our lead product candidate, and because our other product candidates are based on similar technology, if we are unable to obtain patent protection for CNTY-101, our other product candidates in our pipeline could be significantly impaired, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We cannot be certain that the claims in our pending patent applications will be considered patentable by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, courts in the United States or by the patent offices and courts
 
40

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
in foreign countries, nor can we be certain that claims that may ultimately issue from our patent applications will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged. If we are unable to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our product candidates, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be materially harmed.
The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our potential future collaborators will be successful in protecting CNTY-101 and our other product candidates by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:

the USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other provisions during the patent process, the noncompliance with which can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, and partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction;

patent applications may not result in any patents being issued;

patents may be challenged, invalidated, modified, revoked, circumvented, found to be unenforceable, or otherwise may not provide any competitive advantage;

our competitors, many of whom have substantially greater resources than we do and many of whom have made significant investments in competing technologies, may seek or may have already obtained patents that will limit, interfere with or block our ability to make, use, and sell CNTY-101 and our other product candidates;

there may be significant pressure on the United States government and international governmental bodies to limit the scope of patent protection both inside and outside the United States for disease treatments that prove successful, as a matter of public policy regarding worldwide health concerns; and

countries other than the United States may have patent laws less favorable to patentees than those upheld by United States courts, allowing foreign competitors a better opportunity to create, develop, and market competing products.
The patent prosecution process is also expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce, or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, in some circumstances, we do not have the right to control the preparation, filing, and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, directed to technology that we license from third parties. We may also require the cooperation of our licensor in order to enforce the licensed patent rights, and such cooperation may not be provided. Therefore, these patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. We cannot be certain that patent prosecution and maintenance activities by our licensors have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, which may affect the validity and enforceability of such patents or any patents that may issue from such applications. If they fail to do so, this could cause us to lose rights in any applicable intellectual property that we in-license, and as a result our ability to develop and commercialize products or product candidates may be adversely affected and we may be unable to prevent competitors from making, using, and selling competing products.
In addition, although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, CMOs, consultants, advisors, and other third parties, any of these parties may breach such agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. In addition, publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.
 
41

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
If the scope of any patent protection we obtain is not sufficiently broad, or if we lose any of our patent protection, our ability to prevent our competitors from commercializing similar or identical product candidates would be adversely affected.
The patent position of biopharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our product candidates or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive product candidates.
Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if patent applications we own or license currently or in the future issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Any patents that we own or in-license may be challenged or circumvented by third parties or may be narrowed or invalidated as a result of challenges by third parties. Consequently, we do not know whether CNTY-101 and our other product candidates will be protectable or remain protected by valid and enforceable patents. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing, misappropriating, or violating manner which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our patents may not cover CNTY-101 and our other product candidates or may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. We may be subject to a third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art to the USPTO, or become involved in opposition, derivation, revocation, reexamination, post-grant review, or PGR, and inter partes review, or IPR, or other similar proceedings in the USPTO or foreign patent offices challenging our patent rights. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we or our predecessors and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. There is no assurance that all potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications or those of our licensors has been found. There is also no assurance that there is not prior art of which we, our predecessors or licensors are aware, but which we do not believe affects the validity or enforceability of a claim in our patents and patent applications or those of our licensors, which may, nonetheless, ultimately be found to affect the validity or enforceability of a claim. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding, or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate or render unenforceable, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize CNTY-101 and our other product candidates and compete directly with us, without payment to us. Moreover, we, or one of our licensors, may have to participate in interference proceedings declared by the USPTO to determine priority of invention or in post-grant challenge proceedings, such as oppositions in a foreign patent office, that challenge priority of invention or other features of patentability. Such challenges may result in loss of patent rights, loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our or our licensors’ ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Such proceedings also may result in substantial costs and require significant time from our scientists and management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop, or commercialize current or future product candidates.
The patent protection and patent prosecution for some of our product candidates may be dependent on third parties.
We or our licensors may fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection on them. Therefore, we may miss potential opportunities to strengthen our patent position. It is possible that defects of form in the preparation or filing of our patents or patent applications may exist, or may arise in the future, for example, with respect to
 
42

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
proper priority claims, inventorship, claim scope, or requests for patent term adjustments. If we or our licensors, whether current or future, fail to establish, maintain, or protect such patents and other intellectual property rights, such rights may be reduced or eliminated. If our licensors are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance, or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised. If there are material defects in the form, preparation, prosecution, or enforcement of our patents or patent applications, such patents may be invalid and/or unenforceable, and such applications may never result in valid, enforceable patents. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.
As a licensee of third parties, we rely on third parties to file and prosecute patent applications and maintain patents and otherwise protect the licensed intellectual property under some of our license agreements. We have not had and do not have primary control over these activities for certain of our patents or patent applications and other intellectual property rights. We cannot be certain that such activities by third parties have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patents or other intellectual property rights. Pursuant to the terms of the license agreements with some of our licensors, the licensors may have the right to control enforcement of our licensed patents or defense of any claims asserting the invalidity of these patents and even if we are permitted to pursue such enforcement or defense, we will require the cooperation of our licensors. We cannot be certain that our licensors will allocate sufficient resources or prioritize their or our enforcement of such patents or defense of such claims to protect our interests in the licensed patents. Even if we are not a party to these legal actions, an adverse outcome could harm our business because it might prevent us from continuing to license intellectual property that we may need to operate our business. If any of our licensors or any of our future licensors or future collaborators fail to appropriately prosecute and maintain patent protection for patents covering CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, our ability to develop and commercialize those product candidates may be adversely affected and we may not be able to prevent competitors from making, using, and selling competing products.
In addition, even where we have the right to control patent prosecution of patents and patent applications we have acquired or licensed from third parties, we may still be adversely affected or prejudiced by actions or inactions of our predecessors or licensors and their counsel that took place prior to us assuming control over patent prosecution.
Our technology acquired or licensed from various third parties may be subject to retained rights. Our predecessors or licensors often retain certain rights under their agreements with us, including the right to use the underlying technology for non-commercial academic and research use, to publish general scientific findings from research related to the technology, and to make customary scientific and scholarly disclosures of information relating to the technology. It is difficult to monitor whether our predecessors or licensors limit their use of the technology to these uses, and we could incur substantial expenses to enforce our rights to our licensed technology in the event of misuse.
In addition, the research resulting in certain of our in-licensed patent rights and technology was funded in part by the United States government. As a result, the government may have certain rights, or march-in rights, to such patent rights and technology. When new technologies are developed with government funding, the government generally obtains certain rights in any resulting patents, including a nonexclusive license authorizing the government to use the invention for noncommercial purposes. These rights may permit the government to disclose our confidential information to third parties and to exercise march-in rights to use or allow third parties to use our licensed technology. The United States government also has the right to take title to these inventions if the applicable licensor fails to disclose the invention to the government or fails to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. The government can exercise its march-in rights if it determines that action is necessary because we fail to achieve practical application of the government-funded technology, because action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements of federal regulations, or to give preference to United States industry. In addition, our rights in such inventions may be subject to certain requirements to manufacture products embodying such inventions in the United States. Any exercise
 
43

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
by the government of such rights could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
If we are limited in our ability to utilize acquired or licensed technologies, or if we lose our rights to critical in-licensed technology, we may be unable to successfully develop, out-license, market, and sell our products, which could prevent or delay new product introductions. Our business strategy depends on the successful development of licensed and acquired technologies into commercial products. Therefore, any limitations on our ability to utilize these technologies may impair our ability to develop, out-license, or market and sell CNTY-101 and our other product candidates.
Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage.
The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

others may be able to develop products that are similar to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or license;

we or our licensors or predecessors might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by the issued patents or patent application that we own or license;

we or our licensors or predecessors might not have been the first to file patent applications covering certain of our inventions;

others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights;

it is possible that our pending patent applications will not lead to issued patents;

issued patents that we own or license may be held invalid or unenforceable, as a result of legal challenges by our competitors;

our competitors might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; and

the patents of others may have an adverse effect on our business.
Should any of these events occur, it could significantly harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.
Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the patents and other intellectual property and proprietary rights of third parties. Claims by third parties that we infringe, misappropriate, or violate their intellectual property or proprietary rights may result in liability for damages or prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts.
Our commercial success depends in part on avoiding infringement, misappropriation, or other violation of the patents, intellectual property, or proprietary rights of third parties. However, our research, development, and commercialization activities may be subject to claims that we infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate patents or other intellectual property rights owned or controlled by third parties. Other entities may have or obtain patents or other intellectual property or proprietary rights that could limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale, or import CNTY-101 or our other product candidates that may be approved in the future, or impair our competitive position. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biopharmaceutical industry, including patent infringement lawsuits, oppositions, reexaminations, IPR proceedings, and PGR proceedings before the USPTO and/or foreign patent offices. Numerous third-party United States and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates, including patents and patent
 
44

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
applications held by our competitors. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture, or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates.
As the biopharmaceutical industry expands and more patents are issued, the risk increases that CNTY-101 and our other product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement, misappropriation, or other violation of the patent rights of third parties. Because patent applications are maintained as confidential for a certain period of time, until the relevant application is published we may be unaware of third-party patents that may be infringed by commercialization of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, and we cannot be certain that we were the first to file a patent application related to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Moreover, because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently-pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that CNTY-101 and our other product candidates may infringe. In addition, identification of third-party patent rights that may be relevant to our technology is difficult because patent searching is imperfect due to differences in terminology among patents, incomplete databases, and the difficulty in assessing the meaning of patent claims. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon, misappropriates, or otherwise violates these patents. Any claims asserted by third parties would be time-consuming and could:

result in costly litigation that may cause negative publicity;

divert the time and attention of our technical personnel and management;

cause development delays;

prevent us from commercializing CNTY-101 and our other product candidates until the asserted patent expires or is held finally invalid or not infringed in a court of law;

require us to develop non-infringing technology, which may not be possible on a cost-effective basis;

subject us to significant liability to third parties; or

require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or which might be non-exclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same technology.
Third parties may hold intellectual property or proprietary rights that could prevent CNTY-101 and our other product candidates from being marketed. Any patent-related legal action against us claiming damages and seeking to enjoin activities relating to CNTY-101 and our other product candidates or processes could subject us to potential liability for damages, including treble damages if we were determined to willfully infringe, and require us to obtain a license to manufacture or develop CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. We cannot predict whether we would prevail in any such actions or that any license required under any of these patents would be made available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Moreover, even if we or our future strategic partners were able to obtain a license, the rights may be nonexclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property. In addition, we cannot be certain that we could redesign CNTY-101 and our other product candidates or processes to avoid infringement, if necessary. Accordingly, an adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding, or the failure to obtain necessary licenses, could prevent us from developing and commercializing CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, which could harm our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Parties making claims against us may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure. In addition, any uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of any litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability
 
45

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
to raise additional funds or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
During the course of any intellectual property litigation, there could be public announcements of the initiation of the litigation as well as results of hearings, rulings on motions, and other interim proceedings in the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the perceived value of our existing products, programs, or intellectual property could be diminished. Accordingly, the market price of shares of our common stock may decline. Such announcements could also harm our reputation or the market for our future products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The intellectual property landscape around gene-editing technology is highly dynamic, and third parties may initiate and prevail in legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights.
The field of gene-editing, especially in the area of CRISPR technology, is still in its infancy, and no such products have reached the market. Further, the ownership of intellectual property rights relating to CRISPR technology is not fully established. Accordingly, we may not be able to secure all the necessary rights to practice the technology. Due to the intense research and development that is taking place by several companies, including us and our competitors, in this field, the intellectual property landscape is in flux, and it may remain uncertain for the coming years. There may be significant intellectual property related litigation and proceedings relating to intellectual property and proprietary rights in the future. Our commercial success depends upon our ability and the ability of our collaborators to develop, manufacture, market, and sell any product candidates that we may develop and use our proprietary technologies without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property and proprietary rights of third parties. The biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights relating to CRISPR. For example, certain patents are currently subject to Interference Proceedings before the USPTO and Opposition Proceedings before the European Patent Office, or EPO. It is uncertain when and how the USPTO, as well as the EPO, will decide in the various proceedings, and the decisions of the respective patent offices may significantly affect the scope or may deny the validity of the respective patents involved in these proceedings. We may in the future become party to, or threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to CRISPR technology and any product candidates we may develop. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of their merit. If we are unable to prove that these patents are invalid or unenforceable or not infringed and we are not able to obtain or maintain a license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, such third parties could potentially assert infringement claims against us, which could have a material adverse effect on the conduct of our business. If we are found to infringe, misappropriate, or violate such third-party patents, we and our partners may be required to pay damages, cease commercialization of the infringing technology, including our use of gene-editing technology, or obtain a license from such third parties, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time-consuming, and unsuccessful. Further, our issued patents could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court.
Competitors may infringe, misappropriate, or violate our intellectual property rights or those of our licensors. To prevent infringement, misappropriation, violation, or unauthorized use, we and/or our licensors may be required to file claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent we own or license is not valid, is unenforceable and/or is not infringed. If we or any of our licensors or potential future collaborators were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent directed at CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that our patent is invalid and/or unenforceable in whole or in part. In patent litigation, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge include an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, written description,
 
46

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could include an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO or made a misleading statement during prosecution.
If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on such product candidate. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications or those of our licensors is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop, or commercialize current or future product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business.
In addition, we may in the future choose to challenge the patentability of claims in a third-party’s patent by requesting that the USPTO review the patent claims in re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). We have challenged and may in the future choose to challenge third party patents in patent opposition proceedings in the EPO or another foreign patent office. Even if successful, the costs of these opposition proceedings could be substantial, and may consume our time or other resources. If we fail to obtain a favorable result at the USPTO, EPO, or other patent office we may be exposed to litigation by the third party alleging that the relevant patent may be infringed by our product candidates.
Even if resolved in our favor, litigation, or other legal proceedings relating to our intellectual property rights may cause us to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing, or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such litigation or proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could compromise our ability to compete in the marketplace.
During the course of any intellectual property litigation, there could be public announcements of the initiation of the litigation as well as results of hearings, rulings on motions, and other interim proceedings in the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the perceived value of our existing products, programs, or intellectual property could be diminished. Accordingly, the market price of shares of our common stock may decline. Such announcements could also harm our reputation or the market for our future products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or other legal proceedings relating to our intellectual property rights, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation or other proceedings.
Changes in United States patent law, or laws in other countries, could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect CNTY-101 and our other product candidates.
As is the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involve a high degree of technological and legal complexity. Therefore, obtaining and enforcing biopharmaceutical patents is costly, time-consuming, and inherently uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or in the interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property and may increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. We cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced in our patents or in third-party patents. In addition, Congress or other foreign legislative bodies may pass patent reform legislation that is unfavorable to us.
For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain
 
47

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by Congress, the United States federal courts, the USPTO, or similar authorities in foreign jurisdictions, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents we might obtain in the future.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship or ownership of our patents and other intellectual property.
We may also be subject to claims that former employees or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents or other intellectual property. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or ownership. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or the exclusive right to use, our owned or in-licensed patents. If we or our licensors are unsuccessful in any interference proceeding or other priority or inventorship dispute, we may be required to obtain and maintain licenses from third parties, including parties involved in any such interference proceedings or other priority or inventorship disputes. Such licenses may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or may be non-exclusive or of a diminished scope. If we are unable to obtain and maintain such licenses, we may need to cease the development, manufacture, and commercialization of one or more of the product candidates we may develop. The loss of exclusivity or the narrowing of our owned and licensed patent claims could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products. Any of the foregoing could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, or prospects. Even if we are successful in an interference proceeding or other similar priority or inventorship disputes, it could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and distraction to management and other employees.
In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing, or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on CNTY-101 and our other product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest United States non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering CNTY-101 and our other product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of product candidates, patents protecting CNTY-101 and our other product candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
If we do not obtain patent term extension for CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, our business may be materially harmed.
Depending upon the timing, duration, and specifics of FDA marketing approval of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates, one or more of our United States patents may be eligible for limited patent term restoration under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Action of 1984, or Hatch-Waxman Act. The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent restoration term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during
 
48

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
product development and the FDA regulatory review process. A maximum of one patent may be extended per FDA approved product as compensation for the patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval, only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering such approved drug product, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. Patent term extension may also be available in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval of our product candidates. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines or failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. In addition, we may be reliant on third-party licensors and collaborators in applying for such patent term extensions and we may not be able to obtain their cooperation. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or restoration or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially. Further, if this occurs, our competitors may take advantage of our investment in development and trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Although we have licenses to issued patents and pending patent applications in the United States and certain other countries, filing, prosecuting, and defending patents in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our product candidates, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of many foreign countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may be adversely affected.
 
49

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other requirements imposed by regulations and governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for noncompliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees, and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to the USPTO and various foreign patent offices at various points over the lifetime of any patents we ultimately obtain and/or applications we file. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on third parties to pay these fees when due. Additionally, the USPTO and various foreign patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with rules applicable to the particular jurisdiction. In some cases, we are also dependent on our licensors to take the necessary action to comply with these requirements with respect to our licensed intellectual property. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, potential competitors might be able to enter the market with similar or identical products or technology, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business, and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition, we rely on the protection of our trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology, and other proprietary information to maintain our competitive position. Although we have taken steps to protect our trade secrets and unpatented know-how, including entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties, and confidential information and inventions agreements with employees, consultants, and advisors, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed, and any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets.
Because we currently rely on other third parties to manufacture our product candidates and to perform quality testing, we must, at times, share our proprietary technology and confidential information, including trade secrets, with them. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and other trade secrets, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements, consulting agreements, or other similar agreements with our advisors, employees, consultants, and other third parties prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information and other trade secrets. These agreements typically limit the rights of the third parties to use or disclose our confidential information, proprietary information, and other trade secrets. Despite the contractual provisions employed when working with third parties, the need to share trade secrets and other confidential information increases the risk that such trade secrets become known by our competitors, are intentionally or inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others or are disclosed or used in violation of these agreements.
Moreover, third parties may still obtain this information or may come upon this or similar information independently, and we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of these events occur or if we otherwise lose protection for our trade secrets, the value of this information may be greatly reduced and our competitive position would be harmed. If we do not apply for patent protection prior to such publication or if we cannot otherwise maintain the confidentiality of our proprietary technology and other confidential information, then our ability to obtain patent protection or to protect our trade secret information may be jeopardized.
We may be subject to claims that we have wrongfully hired an employee from a competitor or that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged confidential information or trade secrets of their former employers.
As is common in the biopharmaceutical industry, in addition to our employees, we engage the services of consultants to assist us in the development of CNTY-101 and our other product candidates. Many of these
 
50

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
consultants, and many of our employees, were previously employed at, or may have previously provided or may be currently providing consulting services to, other biopharmaceutical companies including our competitors or potential competitors. We may become subject to claims that we, our employees or a consultant inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other information proprietary to their former employers or their former or current clients. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely affect our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our management team and other employees.
Risks related to our common stock and this offering
An active, liquid, and orderly market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained.
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. Although we have applied to have our common stock listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, an active trading market for our common stock may never develop or be sustained following this offering. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies using our shares as consideration, which, in turn, could materially adversely affect our business.
If, after listing, we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of the Nasdaq, such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our common stock. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by us to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, prevent our common stock from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement or prevent future noncompliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements.
The trading price of the shares of our common stock could be highly volatile, and purchasers of our common stock could incur substantial losses.
Our stock price is likely to be volatile. The stock market in general and the market for stock of biopharmaceutical companies in particular have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their common stock at or above the initial public offering price. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by those factors discussed in this “Risk factors” section and many others, including:

the commencement, enrollment, or results of our current and future preclinical studies and clinical trials, and the results of trials of our competitors or those of other companies in our market sector;

regulatory approval of our product candidates, or limitations to specific label indications or patient populations for its use, or changes or delays in the regulatory review process;

regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;

changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems, especially in light of current reforms to the United States healthcare system;

the success or failure of our efforts to acquire, license, or develop additional product candidates;

innovations or new products developed by us or our competitors;

announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;

manufacturing, supply or distribution delays or shortages;
 
51

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

any changes to our relationship with FCDI, any manufacturers, suppliers, licensors, future collaborators, or other strategic partners;

achievement of expected product sales and profitability;

variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us;

market conditions in the biopharmaceutical sector and issuance of securities analysts’ reports or recommendations;

trading volume of our common stock;

an inability to obtain additional funding;

sales of our stock by insiders and stockholders;

general economic, industry, and market conditions, or other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control;

additions or departures of key personnel; and

intellectual property, product liability, or other litigation against us.
In addition, in the past, stockholders have initiated class action lawsuits against biopharmaceutical companies following periods of volatility in the market prices of these companies’ stock. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may allocate the net proceeds from this offering in ways that you and other stockholders may not agree.
Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds from this offering, including for any of the purposes described in the section titled “Use of proceeds.” Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of the net proceeds from this offering, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. Our management might not apply our net proceeds in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment, and the failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in short- and intermediate-term, interest-bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments, certificates of deposit or direct or guaranteed obligations of the United States government. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not invest or apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected results, which could cause our stock price to decline.
You will suffer immediate and substantial dilution in the net tangible book value of the common stock you purchase.
Investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock. As a result, investors purchasing common stock in this offering will incur immediate dilution of $      per share, representing the difference between our assumed initial public offering price of $       per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share as of      , 2021. To the extent outstanding options to purchase shares of our common stock are exercised, new investors may incur further dilution. For more information on the dilution you may experience as a result of investing in this offering, see the section of this prospectus entitled “Dilution.”
We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation, if any, in the price of our common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation, and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. In addition, the terms of any future debt agreements may preclude us from paying dividends. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the
 
52

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
appreciation of their stock. There is no guarantee that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which stockholders have purchased their shares.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock by our existing stockholders in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market or the perception that these sales might occur could significantly reduce the market price of our common stock and impair our ability to raise adequate capital through the sale of additional equity securities.
Based on shares of common stock outstanding as of           , 2021, upon the closing of this offering, we will have outstanding a total of       shares of common stock after this offering, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares and no exercise of outstanding options. Of these shares, only       shares of common stock sold in this offering by us, plus any shares sold upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market immediately following this offering, unless they are purchased by one of our affiliates.
Our directors and executive officers and holders of substantially all of our outstanding securities have entered into lock-up agreements with the underwriters pursuant to which they may not, with limited exceptions, for a period of 180 days from the date of this prospectus, offer, sell or otherwise transfer or dispose of any of our securities, without the prior written consent of J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Securities, Inc., SVB Leerink LLC, and Piper Sandler & Co. The underwriters may permit our officers, directors, and other stockholders and the holders of our outstanding options who are subject to the lock-up agreements to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements, subject to limitations. See “Underwriting.” Sales of these shares, or perceptions that they will be sold, could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline. After the lock-up agreements expire, up to an additional       shares of common stock will be eligible for sale in the public market of which       shares are held by directors, executive officers, and other affiliates and will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act.
In addition, as of      , 2021, up to       shares of common stock that are either subject to outstanding options or reserved for future issuance under our employee benefit plans will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, the lock-up agreements, Rule 144 under the Securities Act, or Rule 144, and Rule 701 under the Securities Act, or Rule 701. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
After this offering, the holders of       shares of our outstanding common stock, or approximately      % of our total outstanding common stock as of           , 2021, will be entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act, subject to vesting and the 180-day lock-up agreements described above. See “Description of capital stock—Registration rights.” Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares held by affiliates, as defined in Rule 144. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
Our executive officers, directors, principal stockholders, and their affiliates will continue to exercise significant control over our company after this offering, which will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could delay or prevent a change in corporate control.
Immediately following the closing of this offering, and disregarding any shares of common stock that they purchase in this offering, the existing holdings of our executive officers, directors, principal stockholders, and their affiliates, including entities affiliated with Bayer, FCDI, and Versant Ventures, or Versant, will represent beneficial ownership, in the aggregate, of approximately    % of our outstanding common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock in this offering and assuming we issue the number of shares of common stock as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, will be able to influence our management and affairs and control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any sale, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. These stockholders acquired their shares of common stock for substantially less than the price of the shares of common stock being acquired in this offering, and these stockholders may have interests, with respect to their common stock, that are different from those of
 
53

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
investors in this offering and the concentration of voting power among these stockholders may have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock. In addition, this concentration of ownership might adversely affect the market price of our common stock by:

delaying, deferring or preventing a change of control of us;

impeding a merger, consolidation, takeover or other business combination involving us; or

discouraging a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.
See “Principal stockholders” in this prospectus for more information regarding the ownership of our outstanding common stock by our executive officers, directors, principal stockholders, and their affiliates.
We are an emerging growth company and a “smaller reporting company”, and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and “smaller reporting companies” may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, and may remain an emerging growth company until the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the closing of this offering. However, if certain events occur prior to the end of such five-year period, including if we become a “large accelerated filer,” our annual gross revenues exceed $1.07 billion or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt in any three-year period, we will cease to be an emerging growth company prior to the end of such five-year period. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and intend to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. The reduced disclosure and other requirements that we may take advantage of include:

presenting only two years of audited financial statements, in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements, with correspondingly reduced “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” disclosure in this prospectus;

not being required to have our registered independent public accounting firm attest to management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting;

presenting reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements;

not being required to hold non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements; and

extended transition periods for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
We have taken advantage of reduced reporting burdens in this prospectus. In particular, in this prospectus, we have provided only two years of audited financial statements and have not included all of the executive compensation related information that would be required if we were not an emerging growth company. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive if we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be reduced or more volatile. In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of these accounting standards until they would otherwise apply to private companies.
We are also a “smaller reporting company,” meaning that the market value of our stock held by nonaffiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million. If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation.
 
54

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.
As a public company, and particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company or smaller reporting company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or Nasdaq, the Dutch Civil Code, and the Dutch Corporate Governance Code impose various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to comply with these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we will be required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting, including an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. However, while we remain an emerging growth company or a smaller reporting company with less than $100 million in annual revenue, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years. To achieve compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act within the prescribed period, we will be engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, potentially engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. Despite our efforts, there is a risk that neither we nor our independent registered public accounting firm will be able to conclude within the prescribed timeframe that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports or publish unfavorable research or reports about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would be negatively impacted. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases to cover us or fails to regularly publish reports on us, interest in our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage another company from acquiring us and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Provisions in our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws to be in effect immediately prior to the closing of this offering may discourage, delay or prevent, a merger, acquisition or other change in control of us that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions could also limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. As our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions could in turn affect any attempt by our stockholders to replace current members of our management team. These provisions provide, among other things, that:

our board of directors has the exclusive right to expand the size of our board of directors and to elect directors to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
 
55

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II, and Class III, with each class serving staggered three-year terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;

our stockholders may not act by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;

a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the chair of our board of directors, our chief executive officer (or president, in the absence of a chief executive officer), or a majority of our board of directors, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;

our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;

our board of directors may alter certain provisions of our amended and restated bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;

the approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of our shares entitled to vote at an election of our board of directors is required to adopt, amend, or repeal our amended and restated bylaws or repeal the provisions of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors;

stockholders must provide advance notice and additional disclosures to nominate individuals for election to the board of directors or to propose matters that can be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain voting control of our shares; and

our board of directors is authorized to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer.
Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, or DGCL, which prohibits a person who owns in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner.
Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine; provided, that, this provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Furthermore, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will also provide that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. By agreeing to this provision, however, stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Furthermore, the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find the choice of forum
 
56

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We could be subject to securities class action litigation.
In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.
 
57

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Special note regarding forward-looking statements
This prospectus contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance, as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “design,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “predict,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. In addition, statements that “we believe” or similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations and continue the development of our current and future product candidates;

the preclinical nature of our business and our ability to successfully advance our current and future product candidates through development activities, preclinical studies, and clinical trials;

our ability to generate revenue from future product sales and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability;

the accuracy of our projections and estimates regarding our expenses, capital requirements, cash utilization, and need for additional financing;

the expected uses of the net proceeds from this offering;

the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to contain its spread ultimately impact our business, including development activities, preclinical studies, and future clinical trials;

our dependence on the success of our product candidates, in particular CNTY-101, CNTY-103, and CNTY-102;

the novelty of our approach to immuno-oncology treatment of cancer, utilizing CAR-iNK and CAR-iT cells, and the challenges we will face due to the novel nature of such technology;

the success of competing therapies that are or become available;

our reliance on the maintenance of our collaborative relationship with FCDI for access to key differentiation and reprogramming technology for the manufacturing and development of our product candidates;

the initiation, progress, success, cost, and timing of our development activities, preclinical studies and future clinical trials;

the timing of our future IND applications and the likelihood of, and our ability to obtain and maintain, regulatory clearance of such IND applications for our product candidates;

the timing, scope and likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals, including final regulatory approval of our product candidates;

our reliance on FCDI to be the exclusive manufacturer of certain product candidates, and our ability to manufacture our own product candidates in the future, and the timing and costs of such manufacturing activities;

the performance of third parties in connection with the development of our product candidates, including third parties conducting our future clinical trials as well as third-party suppliers and manufacturers;

our ability to attract and retain strategic collaborators with development, regulatory, and commercialization expertise;

the public opinion and scrutiny of cell-based immuno-oncology therapies for treating cancer and its potential impact on public perception of our company and product candidates;

our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and develop sales and marketing capabilities, if our product candidates are approved;
 
58

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

the size and growth of the potential markets for our product candidates and our ability to serve those markets;

regulatory developments and approval pathways in the United States and foreign countries for our product candidates;

the potential scope and value of our intellectual property and proprietary rights;

our ability, and the ability of our licensors, to obtain, maintain, defend, and enforce intellectual property and proprietary rights protecting our product candidates, and our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties;

our ability to recruit and retain key members of management and other clinical and scientific personnel;

developments relating to our competitors and our industry; and

other risks and uncertainties, including those described or incorporated by reference under the caption “Risk factors” in this prospectus.
We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this prospectus, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance, or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur at all. You should refer to the section titled “Risk factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement, of which this prospectus is a part, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of the forward-looking statements in this prospectus by these cautionary statements.
 
59

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Market and industry data
This prospectus contains estimates and other statistical data made by independent parties relating to our industry and the markets in which we operate, including estimates and statistical data about our market position, market opportunity, the incidence of certain medical conditions and other industry data. These data, to the extent they contain estimates or projections, involve a number of assumptions and limitations and are inherently imprecise, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates or projections. Based on our industry experience, we believe that such data is reliable, the conclusions contained in the publications and reports are reasonable and the third-party information included in this prospectus and in our estimates is accurate and complete.
 
60

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Use of proceeds
We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $      million (or approximately $      million if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase up to           additional shares of common stock), based on an assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds from this offering by approximately $      million, assuming that the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares of common stock offered by us would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us by approximately $       million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $       per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
The principal purposes of this offering are to obtain additional capital to support our operations, to create a public market for our common stock and to facilitate our future access to the public equity markets. We currently expect to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, as follows:

Approximately $      million to fund pre-clinical activities and clinical preparation activities for CNTY-101 through completion of our IND submission, initiation of our planned Phase 1 clinical trial, and receipt of initial safety and pharmacokinetic, or PK, data;

Approximately $      million to fund pre-clinical activities for CNTY-103, CNTY-102, and CNTY-104 through completion of our IND submission for each of CNTY-103, CNTY-102, and CNTY-104;

Approximately $      to continue developing manufacturing capabilities for our product candidates, including the construction of our manufacturing facility in Branchburg, New Jersey;

Approximately $      to fund our internal research and development capabilities and to advance new product candidates; and

The remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the additional costs associated with being a public company.
We may use a portion of the net proceeds from this offering to in-license, acquire, or invest in complementary businesses, technologies, products or assets. However, we have no current commitments to do so.
Based on our planned use of the net proceeds, we estimate such funds, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, will be sufficient for us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the      quarter of 20 . We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could exhaust our available capital resources sooner than we expect.
Our expected use of net proceeds from this offering represents our current intentions based upon our present plans and business condition. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon the closing of this offering, or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above. The amounts and timing of our actual use of the net proceeds will vary depending on numerous factors, including our ability to obtain additional financing, the progress, cost, and results of our preclinical and clinical development programs, and whether we are able to enter into future licensing or collaboration arrangements. We may find it necessary or advisable to use the net proceeds for other purposes, and our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds, and investors will be relying on our judgment regarding the application of the net proceeds from this offering.
 
61

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
The expected net proceeds of this offering will not be sufficient for us to fund any of our product candidates through regulatory approval, and we will need to raise substantial additional capital to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidates.
Pending their use, we plan to invest the net proceeds from this offering in short- and medium-term, interest-bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments, certificates of deposit, or direct or guaranteed obligations of the United States government.
 
62

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Dividend policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock and our ability to pay cash dividends is currently restricted by the terms of our Loan and Security Agreement with Hercules Capital, Inc. We do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and expansion of our business. Any future determination related to dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend upon, among other factors, our results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, and capital requirements.
 
63

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Capitalization
The following table sets forth our cash, cash equivalents, short term investments and our capitalization as of March 31, 2021:

on an actual basis;

on a pro forma basis to give effect to the completion of (i) the filing and effectiveness of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation immediately prior to the closing of this offering, and (ii) the conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of          shares of common stock upon the closing of this offering; and

on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give effect to the pro forma adjustments described above and to give further effect to the issuance and sale of           shares of our common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
The pro forma as adjusted information set forth in the table below is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. You should read this table together with the sections of this prospectus captioned “Selected financial and other data,” “Use of proceeds,” “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations,” “Description of capital stock” and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
(in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
Actual
Pro Forma
Adjusted(1)
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments
$ 182,942 $ 182,942 $
Long-term debt
9,711 9,711
Stockholders’ deficit:
Series A preferred stock, $0.0001 par value: 35,000,000 shares
34,922
authorized, issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as
adjusted
Series B preferred stock, $0.0001 par value: 26,143,790 shares
authorized, issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized,
issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted
144,839
Series C preferred stock, $0.0001 par value: 24,721,999 shares
authorized, issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized,
issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted
159,628
Common stock, $0.0001 par value, 125,236,190 shares authorized;
19,732,637 shares issued and outstanding, actual;         
shares authorized and          shares issued and outstanding
pro forma;          shares authorized and          shares
issued and outstanding pro forma as adjusted
3 12
Additional paid-in capital
219,156 558,536
Accumulated deficit
(310,690) (310,690)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss
(26) (26)
Total capitalization
$ 257,543 $ 257,543 $       
(1) A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $     per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash, total stockholders’ equity, and total capitalization by $      million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash, total stockholders’ deficit, and total capitalization by $      million, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per share and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
 
64

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering reflected in the table above is based on 110,247,171 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2021 (which includes 4,648,745 shares outstanding that are subject to forfeiture or our right to repurchase as of such date), which gives effect to the pro forma transactions described above and excludes:

      shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options as of March 31, 2021, at a weighted-average exercise price of $      per share;

40,540 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants to purchase common stock, at a weighted-average exercise price of $5.55 per share;

      shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards as of March 31, 2021 under the 2018 Plan;

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Plan which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance pursuant to the 2021 Plan; and

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our ESPP will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP.
 
65

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Dilution
If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering. The data in this section are derived from our balance sheet as of March 31, 2021.
Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) as of March 31, 2021 was $      million, or $      per share of our common stock. Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) represents our total tangible assets less total liabilities and convertible preferred stock. Historical net tangible book value (deficit) per share is our historical net tangible book value (deficit) divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2021.
Our pro forma net tangible book value as of March 31, 2021, before giving effect to this offering, was $      million, or $      per share. Pro forma net tangible book value, before the issuance and sale of shares in this offering, gives effect to the conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of      shares of common stock upon the closing of this offering.
Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents pro forma net tangible book value divided by the total number of shares outstanding as of March 31, 2021 after giving effect to the pro forma adjustments described above.
Net tangible book value dilution per share to new investors represents the difference between the amount per share paid by purchasers of common stock in this offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately following the closing of this offering. After giving effect to the pro forma transactions described above and the sale of shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of March 31, 2021 would have been $      million, or $      per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $      per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $      per share to new investors participating in this offering. The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:
Assumed initial public offering price per share
     
$      
Historical net tangible book value (deficit) per share as of March 31, 2021
$
Pro forma increase in net tangible book value per share as of March 31, 2021 attributable to
the pro forma transactions described above
      
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of March 31, 2021 before giving effect to this offering
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to new investors participating in this offering
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering
Dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering
$      
Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $      per share and the dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering by $      per share, assuming that the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, an increase of 1.0 million in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value after this offering by $      per share and decrease the dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering by $      per share, and a decrease of 1.0 million shares of common stock offered by us would decrease the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by $      per share,
 
66

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
and increase the dilution per share to new investors in this offering by $      per share, assuming that the assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, would be $      per share, representing an immediate increase to existing stockholders of $      per share, and dilution to new investors participating in this offering of $      per share.
The following table summarizes the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the differences between the number of shares purchased from us, the total consideration paid and the average price per share paid to us by existing stockholders and by investors purchasing shares in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price of $      per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us:
Shares purchased
Total consideration
Number
Percent
Amount
Percent
Average price
per share
Existing stockholders
% $            % $          
New investors
Total
100% $ 100%
If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares in full, our existing stockholders would own     % and our new investors would own     % of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding upon the closing of this offering.
The foregoing discussion and tables above (other than the historical net tangible book value (deficit) calculation) are based on 110,247,171 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2021 (which includes 4,648,745 shares outstanding that are subject to forfeiture or our right to repurchase as of such date), which gives effect to the pro forma transaction described above and excludes:

      shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options as of March 31, 2021, at a weighted-average exercise price of $      per share;

40,540 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants to purchase common stock, at a weighted-average exercise price of $5.55 per share;

      shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards as of March 31, 2021 under the 2018 Plan;

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Plan which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance pursuant to the 2021 Plan; and

      shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under the ESPP will become effective upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP.
To the extent that any outstanding options are exercised, new options or other equity awards are issued under our equity incentive plans, or we issue additional shares in the future, there will be further dilution to new investors participating in this offering.
 
67

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
Selected consolidated financial data
The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated. The year ended December 31, 2020 and the period of June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 are referred to herein as Successor and the period of January 1, 2019 through June 20, 2019 is referred to herein as Predecessor. We have derived the selected consolidated statements of operations data for the Year Ended December 31, 2020 (Successor), the period from June 21, 2019 through December 31, 2019 (Successor) and the period from January 1, 2019 through June 20, 2019 (Predecessor), and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor) from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. For interim periods, we have derived our selected statements of operations data for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 and the selected balance sheet data as of March 31, 2021 from our unaudited condensed financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited condensed financial statements were prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and include, in management’s opinion, all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial information set forth in those statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. You should read the following consolidated financial data together with our audited consolidated financial statements and our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and the information in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
March 31,
December 31,
2020
Successor
Period from
June 21, 2019
(Inception) to
December 31,
2019
Predecessor
Period from
January 1,
2019 to
June 20,
2019
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
2021
2020
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:
Operating expenses:
Research and development
$ 15,374 $ 7,943 $ 39,681 $ 10,107 $ 4,159
General and administrative
2,688 2,050 9,495 3,622 2,145
Write off of in-process research and development asset
4,722 225,946
Total operating expenses
18,062 9,993 53,898 239,675 6,304
Loss from operations
(18,062) (9,993) (53,898) (239,675) (6,304)
Interest expense
(314) (381)
Other income, net
28 320 704 908 302
Net loss
$ (18,348) $ (9,673) $ (53,575) $ (238,767) $ (6,002)
Net loss per common share
Basic and Diluted(1)
$ (0.95) $ (0.51) $ (2.85) $ (12.68) $ (0.40)
Weighted average common shares outstanding Basic and Diluted(1)
19,278,887 18,825,136 18,825,136 18,825,136 15,029,240
Pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders – basic and diluted (unaudited)(2)
$ (0.17) $ (0.51)
Pro forma weighted-average number of common shares –  basic and diluted (unaudited)(2)
105,144,676 104,690,925
(1) See Note 15 of our audited consolidated financial statements and Note 13 of our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted net loss per share, and the weighted-average number of shares outstanding used in the computation of the per share amounts.
(2) See the subsection titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Unaudited Pro Forma Information” for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted pro forma net loss per share, and the weighted-average number of shares outstanding used in the computation of the per share amounts.
 
68

TABLE OF CONTENTS