CENTOGENE and Lifera, a Biopharma Company Owned by the PIF, Enter Strategic Collaboration – Forming Saudi Arabian Joint Venture to Increase Access to Leading Data-Driven Multiomic Testing and Securing CENTOGENE $30 Million Investment

• Joint Venture (JV) combines CENTOGENE's global leadership in multiomics with local insight of Lifera, a biopharmaceutical company wholly-owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) based in Riyadh
  
  
• JV focuses on providing state-of-the-art multiomic testing services to patients, health systems, biopharma clients, and research institutions in Saudi Arabia and countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). CENTOGENE today is one of the largest providers of genetic testing services to this market
  
  
• High-quality services will translate genetic insights into data-driven, life-changing answers – accelerating precision medicine, expanding population health programs, improving turnaround times on clinical diagnoses, and building capabilities and capacity in Saudi Arabia to foster global research and collaboration
  
  
• The JV will help enable the Saudi Vision 2030 and several other national priority initiatives related to genomic testing and the growth of the Saudi Arabian biotech sector
  
  
• CENTOGENE will receive a $30 million investment in the form of a mandatory convertible loan with a six-month term and a conversion price of $2.20 per share of CENTOGENE’s common stock, as well as significant JV performance-related milestone payments and revenue-based royalties until the year 2033
  

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ROSTOCK, Germany and BERLIN and RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CENTOGENE N.V. (Nasdaq: CNTG), the essential life science partner for data-driven answers in rare and neurodegenerative diseases, and Lifera, a biopharmaceutical company wholly-owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), today announced a strategic collaboration with the formation of a Joint Venture (JV) to increase local and regional access and rapid delivery of world-class multiomic testing to patients in Saudi Arabia and countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Under the terms of the collaboration, CENTOGENE will receive a $30 million mandatory convertible loan from Lifera.

CENTOGENE, the current market leader in outsourced genetic testing for patients in Saudi Arabia, will provide its leading diagnostics and multiomics expertise to the JV, which together with Lifera’s strong local presence and resources, will establish widespread access to local state-of-the-art genetic sequencing tailored to regional needs. The JV will build an advanced laboratory and bioinformatics infrastructure – leveraging the CENTOGENE Biodatabank, the world’s largest real-world integrated multiomic data repository in rare disease biobanks globally and neurodegenerative diseases, which has more than 70 million and over 35,000 Saudi Arabian patient datasets. The JV will develop capabilities for genetic testing and interpretation, working collaboratively with CENTOGENE globally – serving as a vehicle for large national screening and genomics programs. As such, patients in Saudi Arabia and the GCC, a rapidly growing region with over 56 million inhabitants, will have increased access to the world’s most advanced and effective diagnostic offerings, which is at the core of Lifera’s strategic objectives to contribute to improving national resilience and health outcomes in Saudi Arabia.