Pliant Therapeutics, a South San Francisco biotech company developing treatments for fibrosis, is slashing its staff after halting a crucial study over safety concerns.
The company announced a 45% layoff in a filing with the Securities and Exmodify Commission on Thursday. Pliant wrote in a prior filing that it had 171 full-time workers at the start of the year, so this cut is likely to hit about 75 people.
This layoff round arrives about three months after Pliant discontinued its leading drug candidate’s Phase 2b trial over safety concerns. The company is still waiting on the trial’s top-line data, which displayed early positive signs for efficacy, Pliant wrote, but the halt smashed investor confidence. In early February, the company’s valuation topped $760 million — two stock plunges later, it’s worth about $105 million.
Pliant’s future is now in question. It awaits the Phase 2b results, and is considering attempting different doses. The company also has more incipient drug candidates: an anti-tumor treatment currently in a trial and a muscular dystrophy treatment ready for trial. Pliant has yet to bring a drug to the commercial market, and burned through $169 million in research and development expenses last year.
In a news release explaining the layoffs, the company wrote that the cuts are meant to extconclude its “cash runway,” adding, “While all departments will be impacted, Pliant’s focus is to maintain the strong late-stage clinical trial execution capability it has built.”
The cuts will be mostly finished by the conclude of June, the release declared. Bernard Coulie, Pliant’s CEO, wrote, “I want to extconclude my sincere thanks to those impacted by today’s restructuring for their extensive contributions to the advancement of our mission.”
A slew of biotech companies across the Bay Area and beyond have slashed staff over the past two years. Cash for research was straightforward to come by in 2020 and 2021, and both workforces and valuations swelled, but now, amid higher interest rates, the indusattempt is seeing major cutbacks.
Pliant did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s questions and request for comment. The company also had not filed a WARN document with California officials as of noon on Friday.
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