Pliant Axes 45% of Workforce To Save Money, Help Late-Stage Medical Trials
About two months after discontinuing the Section IIb/III BEACON-IPF examine of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug candidate bexotegrast, Pliant Therapeutics introduced it’s slicing roughly 45% of its workforce. The transfer is supposed to assist prolong the San Francisco–based mostly biotech’s money runway to help execution of late-stage scientific trials. The corporate, which develops oral integrin inhibitors for fibrotic ailments, didn’t say how lengthy that runway will final.
Pliant had 171 full-time staff—together with 117 in analysis and improvement—as of Dec. 31, in line with a March 3 SEC submitting, which means the cuts might have an effect on about 77 staff. The biotech expects to principally full the layoffs by the tip of the second quarter, incurring about $3.6 million in associated prices, in line with a Could 1 SEC submitting.
In February, Pliant voluntarily suspended dosing and enrollment within the Section IIb/III BEACON-IPF examine of bexotegrast following a prespecified knowledge assessment by an unbiased knowledge security monitoring board. The corporate didn’t determine the explanations behind the board’s advice however famous that it was reviewing BEACON-IPF’s knowledge to know the rationale behind it.
Pliant in March introduced it was discontinuing the trial following that assessment as a consequence of an imbalance in unadjudicated IPF-related adversarial occasions between the remedy and placebo teams. The corporate additionally famous it will consider subsequent steps for the drug candidate’s improvement and would think about extra dose-ranging Section IIb research in pulmonary fibrosis and probably different nonrespiratory indications, together with liver ailments. Pliant stated Thursday it’s awaiting topline knowledge from the Section IIb/III trial BEACON-IPF, which it expects to be obtainable within the second quarter. As soon as it has that, it stated, it is going to decide subsequent steps for the drug’s improvement.
The biotech has additionally been coping with monetary challenges. In March, it introduced a limited-duration stockholder rights program—also called a “poison tablet protection”—shortly after Kevin Tang’s Concentra Biosciences took a sizeable stake within the biotech. Pliant stated the transfer was meant to cut back the probability of anybody gaining management of the enterprise with out paying stockholders an applicable management premium. It additionally needed the board to have “ample alternative to make knowledgeable judgments and take actions which can be in the very best pursuits of all stockholders.”
In accordance with the corporate’s Could 1 SEC submitting, it had a web lack of $210.3 million in 2024, up from web losses of $161.3 million and $123.3 million in 2023 and 2022, respectively. Pliant had $357.2 million in money, money equivalents, restricted money and short-term investments as of Dec. 31, 2024.
