NuCana Prices $7 Million Registered Direct Offering

EDINBURGH, United Kingdom, May 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NuCana plc (NASDAQ: NCNA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on significantly improving treatment outcomes for patients with cancer, announced that it has priced a registered direct offering consisting of 10,845,985 American Depository Shares, or ADSs, (or pre-funded warrants in lieu thereof) with each ADS (or pre-funded warrant) accompanied by (i) a Series A warrant to purchase one (1) ADS at an initial exercise price of $0.8068 per share and (ii) a Series B Warrant to purchase one (1) ADS at an initial exercise price of $1.61 per share. The combined public offering price of each ADS together with the accompanying Series A and Series B Warrants is $0.6454, and the combined offering price of each pre-funded warrant together with the accompanying Series A and Series B warrants is $0.6454, minus the United States dollar equivalent of £0.01, based on the exchange rate on the date of pricing. The gross proceeds of the offering are expected to be approximately $7 million before deducting placement agent fees and offering expenses and are expected to be used to fund activities relating to the advancement of our drug discovery and development programs, and for other general corporate purposes, including, but not limited to, working capital, capital expenditures, investments, acquisitions, should we choose to pursue any, and collaborations. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about May 7, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Laidlaw & Company (UK) Ltd. is acting as the sole placement agent for the offering.

This registered offering is being made by the Company pursuant to a registration statement on Form F-1 (File No. 333-286716), which was declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on May 5, 2025. The securities may only be offered by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus may be obtained, when available, at the SEC's website at or from Laidlaw & Company (UK) Ltd., 521 5th Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10175, or by telephone at (212) 953-4900, or by email at .

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

About NuCana

NuCana is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for patients with cancer by applying our ProTide technology to transform some of the most widely prescribed chemotherapy agents, nucleoside analogs, into more effective and safer medicines. While these conventional agents remain part of the standard of care for the treatment of many solid and hematological tumors, they have significant shortcomings that limit their efficacy and they are often poorly tolerated. Utilizing our proprietary technology, we are developing new medicines, ProTides, designed to overcome the key limitations of nucleoside analogs and generate much higher concentrations of anti-cancer metabolites in cancer cells. NuCana’s pipeline includes NUC-7738 and NUC-3373. NUC-7738 is a novel anti-cancer agent that disrupts RNA polyadenylation, profoundly impacts gene expression in cancer cells and targets multiple aspects of the tumor microenvironment. NUC-7738 is in the Phase 2 part of a Phase 1/2 study which is evaluating NUC-7738 as a monotherapy in patients with advanced solid tumors and in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with melanoma. NUC-3373 is a new chemical entity derived from the nucleoside analog 5-fluorouracil, a widely used chemotherapy agent. NUC-3373 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1b/2 modular study (NuTide:303) of NUC-3373 in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab for patients with advanced solid tumors and in combination with docetaxel for patients with lung cancer.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain “forward‐looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on the beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management of NuCana plc (the “Company”). All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the completion and timing of the offering, the anticipated total gross proceeds from the offering and the uses thereof. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties related to global economic or market conditions, changes in our operating plans or funding requirements, satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to the offering and the risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 20, 2025, subsequent reports that the Company files with the SEC and the final prospectus supplement related to this offering. Forward-looking statements represent the Company’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward‐looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform any of the forward-looking statements to actual results or to changes in its expectations.

For more information, please contact:

NuCana plc

Hugh S. Griffith

Chief Executive Officer

1

ICR Westwicke

Chris Brinzey