Pliant Therapeutics to cut workforce by about 45%, expects $3.6 million in severance costs

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLRX) said on May 1, 2025 that it will cut its workforce by about 45 percent of its current employees. The company disclosed the reduction in a Form 8-K filed May 1, 2025 under Item 2.05, which covers exit and disposal costs. It expects to substantially complete the reduction by the end of the second quarter of 2025.

Cost and timing

The company expects to recognize about $3.6 million in total for severance and related benefits. The 8-K says those charges are primarily one-time termination benefits and are primarily cash charges. It also warns of other charges or cash outlays that are not yet planned and could follow from the reduction. The company says more detail will come in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ending June 30, 2025.

The same filing reports that Mike Ouimette, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary, will leave the company effective May 1, 2025, in connection with the reduction.

Why the company is cutting

The reduction comes after the company stopped its lead trial. The 2024 annual report on Form 10-K says Pliant has recently discontinued the BEACON-IPF trial of bexotegrast, a global Phase 2b study in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF. The trial was stopped because of an imbalance in unadjudicated IPF-related adverse events between the treatment and placebo groups. The company says early evidence of an effect on forced vital capacity was also observed, and that it plans to analyze the complete BEACON-IPF data before deciding next steps for the drug.

The 10-K describes the earlier INTEGRIS-IPF study, a Phase 2a trial with doses of 40, 80, 160 and 320 milligrams against placebo over 12 weeks. The report says bexotegrast was well tolerated and showed a dose-dependent treatment effect on forced vital capacity and on quantitative lung fibrosis imaging. The lung function and imaging results were exploratory endpoints in a 12-week study, and that earlier tolerability finding sits against the imbalance in adverse events that stopped BEACON-IPF.

The annual report's second clinical program is PLN-101095, a small molecule that inhibits integrins for solid tumors that resist immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The money

The 10-K reports a net loss of $210,304 thousand for 2024, against $161,336 thousand for 2023 and $123,321 thousand for 2022. The accumulated deficit reached $710,052 thousand at December 31, 2024, up from $499,748 thousand a year earlier.

Cash and cash equivalents were $71,188 thousand at December 31, 2024, up from $63,234 thousand a year earlier. Total stockholders' equity fell to $304,081 thousand from $473,576 thousand over the same year. Total assets were $396,949 thousand.

The company's annual report says it expects significant net losses for the foreseeable future and will need substantial additional capital. It also says the company may use its sales agreement for at-the-market offerings at a future date. The 10-K states that existing capital resources should be sufficient for its anticipated operating expenses and capital needs for the next 12 months and beyond, and the estimate rests on assumptions that could prove wrong.

What comes next

Pliant has two items to resolve. The first is the analysis of the complete BEACON-IPF data, which the company says will set the next steps for bexotegrast. The second is the 10-Q for the second quarter of 2025, which the company says will give more detail on the reduction and its costs. The 8-K does not give the number of employees affected in absolute terms.

The company's own estimate of its funding runway is 12 months and beyond. The announced severance cost is $3.6 million, and the 8-K warns that other charges could follow.

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