PLIANT THERAPEUTICS, INC. [PLRX] Filings

10-Q 1 plrx-20230930.htm 10-Q plrx-20230930

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q


☒			QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2023


☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number: 001-39303

PLIANT THERAPEUTICS, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)


Delaware						47-4272481
(State or other jurisdiction of						(I.R.S. Employer
incorporation or organization)						Identification No.)
260 Littlefield Avenue
South San Francisco, CA						94080
(Address of principal executive offices)						(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (650) 481-6770

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:


Title of Each Class	Trading Symbol	Name of Each Exchange on which Registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share	PLRX	The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer

☐

Accelerated filer

☐

Non-accelerated filer

☒

Smaller reporting company

☒

Emerging growth company

☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of November 3, 2023, the registrant had 59,895,958 shares of common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, outstanding.

Table of Contents


PART I.	FINANCIAL INFORMATION	6

Item 1.	Condensed Financial Statements (Unaudited)	6
	Condensed Balance Sheets	6
	Condensed Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss	7
	Condensed Statements of Stockholders’ Equity	8
	Condensed Statements of Cash Flows	10
	Notes to Condensed Financial Statements	11
Item 2.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	20
Item 3.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	26
Item 4.	Controls and Procedures	27

PART II.	OTHER INFORMATION	27

Item 1.	Legal Proceedings	27
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	27
Item 2.	Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds	74
Item 3.	Defaults Upon Senior Securities	74
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	74
Item 5.	Other Information	74
Item 6.	Exhibits	75
Signatures		76

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, or this Report, contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The statements contained in this Report that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as, but not limited to, “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” or the negative of those terms, and similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this Report include, but are not limited to, statements about:

•Our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing;

•The success, cost and timing of our product development activities and clinical trials of our lead product candidate, bexotegrast (PLN-74809) and our other product candidates;

•Our estimates regarding the impact of challenging macroeconomic and marketplace conditions, including the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as COVID-19, on our business and operations, and our ability to manage such impacts;

•Our or our future collaborators' plans to initiate, recruit and enroll patients in, and conduct our clinical trials at the pace that we project;

•Our plans and strategy to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals of our product candidates;

•Our plans and strategy to obtain funding for our operations, including funding necessary to complete further development and, upon successful development, if approved, commercialize any of our product candidates;

•The potential benefit of orphan drug and Fast Track designations for bexotegrast;

•Our ability to compete with companies currently marketing or engaged in the development of treatments for fibrosis;

•Our plans and strategy regarding obtaining and maintaining intellectual property protection for our product candidates and the duration of such protection;

•Our plans and strategy regarding the manufacture of our product candidates for clinical trials and for commercial use, if approved;

•Our dependence on current and future collaborators for developing, obtaining regulatory approval for and commercializing product candidates in the collaboration;

•Our receipt and timing of any milestone payments or royalties under any future research collaboration or license agreements or arrangements;

•Our plans and strategy regarding the commercialization of any products that are approved for marketing and our ability to establish adequate pricing in the U.S. and international markets;

•The size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, and our ability to serve those markets, either alone or in combination with others;

•Our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and key personnel; and

•Our expectations regarding government and third-party payor coverage and reimbursement.

These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of our management, which are in turn based on information currently available to management. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results and timing expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” included under Part II, Item 1A in this Report. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

SUMMARY OF RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR BUSINESS

Our business involves significant risks, some of which are summarized below. The summary risk factors listed below should be read together with the text of the full risk factors discussed in "Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors" in this Report. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this Report, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” as well as in other documents that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described in this Report could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, growth prospects and stock price. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations and the market price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

•We have incurred significant net losses since inception, and we expect to continue to incur significant net losses for the foreseeable future.

•We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations. If we are unable to raise such capital when needed, or on acceptable terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce and/or eliminate one or more of our research and drug development programs, future commercialization efforts or other operations.

Risks Related to Research and Development and the Biopharmaceutical Industry

•We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our prospects and likelihood of success.

•Our business is highly dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, bexotegrast and any other product candidates that we advance into the clinic. All of our product candidates will require significant additional preclinical and clinical development before we may be able to seek regulatory approval for and launch a product commercially.

•Our approach to drug discovery and development in the area of fibrotic diseases is unproven and may not result in marketable products.

•Clinical development involves a lengthy, complex, and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome to support either a marketing authorization or positive pricing and reimbursement decisions.

•We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of bexotegrast or any other product candidates.

•We may fail to obtain and maintain certain regulatory exclusivities and orphan designations in some jurisdictions and therefore fail to secure orphan exclusivity or other exclusivity extensions in those jurisdictions.

•Our ongoing and future clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events or unexpected drug-drug interactions not seen in our preclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could delay or prevent regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

•If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

•We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing, or commercializing products before or more successfully than us.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

•Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain patent term extensions and to protect our intellectual property. It is difficult and costly to protect our proprietary rights and technology, and we may not be able to ensure their protection.

•Our collaborators may assert ownership or commercial rights to inventions they develop from research we support, or that we develop from our use of the tissue samples or other biological materials which they provide to us, or otherwise arising from the collaboration.

Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties

•We previously entered into a collaboration agreement, as amended, with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., or Novartis, for the development of PLN-1474, which was terminated in April 2023, and may

in the future seek to enter into collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of other product candidates. If we fail to enter into such collaborations, or if our collaborations are not successful, we may be unable to continue development of such product candidates, we would not receive any contemplated milestone payments or royalties, and we could fail to capitalize on the market potential of such product candidates.

•We rely on third parties to conduct certain aspects of our preclinical studies and clinical trials and for tissue samples and other materials required for our research and development activities.

•We rely on single-source third party suppliers located in foreign jurisdictions, including China, to manufacture our drug candidates. An interruption in this supply, caused by a business interruption or geopolitical events, could materially disrupt our research and development activities.

Risks Related to Managing Our Business and Operations

•The effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 could adversely impact our business, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials.

•Our loss of key management personnel, or our failure to recruit additional highly skilled personnel, will impair our ability to develop current product candidates or identify and develop new product candidates, could result in loss of markets or market share and could make us less competitive.

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Condensed Financial Statements.

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Condensed Balance Sheets

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except number of shares and per share amounts)


	September 30, 2023		*December 31, 2022
Assets
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents	$	57,679	$	33,685
Short-term investments	465,933		297,502
Accounts receivable	—		1,983
Tax credit receivable	83		83
Prepaid expenses and other current assets (Note 5)	10,640		7,058
Total current assets	534,335		340,311
Property and equipment, net	3,969		4,486
Operating lease right-of-use assets	1,768		5,422
Other non-current assets	392		394
Total assets	$	540,464	$	350,613
Liabilities and stockholders’ equity
Current liabilities
Accounts payable	$	3,360	$	1,580
Accrued research and development	13,664		11,218
Accrued liabilities (Note 6)	8,310		8,658
Lease liabilities, current	2,061		2,457
Total current liabilities	27,395		23,913
Lease liabilities, non-current	—		3,429
Long-term debt (Note 7)	10,021		9,929
Total liabilities	37,416		37,271
Stockholders’ equity
Common stock, $0.0001 par value; 300,000,000 shares authorized at September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022; and 59,890,980 and 48,941,254 shares issued and outstanding at September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively;	6		5
Additional paid-in capital	963,588		653,707
Accumulated deficit	(458,639)		(338,412)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss	(1,907)		(1,958)
Total stockholders’ equity	503,048		313,342
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity	$	540,464	$	350,613

*The condensed balance sheet as of December 31, 2022 has been derived from the audited financial statements as of that date.

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed financial statements

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except number of shares and per share amounts)


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Revenue	$	—	$	1,482	$	1,580	$	7,720
Operating expenses:
Research and development	(32,339)		(24,606)		(94,614)		(71,822)
General and administrative	(15,346)		(8,823)		(44,074)		(25,698)
Total operating expenses	(47,685)		(33,429)		(138,688)		(97,520)
Loss from operations	(47,685)		(31,947)		(137,108)		(89,800)
Interest and other income (expense), net	6,515		1,633		17,827		2,013
Interest expense	(317)		(301)		(946)		(474)
Net loss	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Net loss attributable to common stockholders	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Net loss per share, attributable to common stockholders - basic and diluted	$	(0.70)	$	(0.65)	$	(2.06)	$	(2.22)
Shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders - basic and diluted	59,688,451		46,799,058		58,319,608		39,735,342
Comprehensive loss:
Net loss	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Net unrealized gain (loss) on short-term investments	334		(1,195)		51		(2,253)
Total other comprehensive gain (loss)	334		(1,195)		51		(2,253)
Comprehensive loss	$	(41,153)	$	(31,810)	$	(120,176)	$	(90,514)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed financial statements.

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Stockholders’ Equity

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except number of shares and per share amounts)


				Additional Paid-In Capital		Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss		Accumulated Deficit		Total Stockholders’ Equity
	Common Stock
	Shares	Amount
Balance at December 31, 2022	48,941,254	$	5	$	653,707	$	(1,958)	$	(338,412)	$	313,342
Common stock issued in a public offering, net of offering expenses	9,583,334	1		269,914		—		—		269,915
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	454,314	—		3,661		—		—		3,661
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		11,923		—		—		11,923
Net unrealized gain on short-term investments	—	—		—		627		—		627
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(37,548)		(37,548)
Balance at March 31, 2023	58,978,902	$	6	$	939,205	$	(1,331)	$	(375,960)	$	561,920
Public offering expenses	—	—		(133)		—		—		(133)
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	243,783	—		334		—		—		334
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		13,046		—		—		13,046
Net unrealized loss on short-term investments	—	—		—		(910)		—		(910)
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(41,192)		(41,192)
Balance at June 30, 2023	59,222,685	$	6	$	952,452	$	(2,241)	$	(417,152)	$	533,065
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	668,295	—		774		—		—		774
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		10,362		—		—		10,362
Net unrealized gain on short-term investments	—	—		—		334		—		334
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(41,487)		(41,487)
Balance at September 30, 2023	59,890,980	$	6	$	963,588	$	(1,907)	$	(458,639)	$	503,048

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed financial statements.

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Stockholders’ Equity

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except number of shares and per share amounts)


				Additional Paid-In Capital		Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss		Accumulated Deficit		Total Stockholders’ Equity
	Common Stock
	Shares	Amount
Balance at December 31, 2021	36,083,301	$	3	$	414,348	$	(201)	$	(215,091)	$	199,059
Vesting of restricted stock awards	15,606	—		1		—		—		1
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	63,552	—		51		—		—		51
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		3,531		—		—		3,531
Net unrealized loss on short-term investments	—	—		—		(749)		—		(749)
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(28,100)		(28,100)
Balance at March 31, 2022	36,162,459	$	3	$	417,931	$	(950)	$	(243,191)	$	173,793
Vesting of restricted stock awards	6,235	—		1		—		—		1
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	13,603	—		446		—		—		446
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		3,403		—		—		3,403
Net unrealized loss on short-term investments	—	—		—		(309)		—		(309)
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(29,546)		(29,546)
Balance at June 30, 2022	36,182,297	$	3	$	421,781	$	(1,259)	$	(272,737)	$	147,788
Issuance of common stock under benefit plans	135,113	—		808		—		—		$	808
Stock-based compensation expense	—	—		4,808		—		—		4,808
Net unrealized loss on short-term investments	—	—		—		(1,195)		—		(1,195)
Common stock issued in a public offering, net of offering expenses	12,432,432	2		215,398		—		—		215,400
Net loss	—	—		—		—		(30,615)		(30,615)
Balance at September 30, 2022	48,749,842	$	5	$	642,795	$	(2,454)	$	(303,352)	$	336,994

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed financial statements.

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
(In thousands)	2023		2022
Cash flows from operating activities
Net loss	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:
Depreciation expense	1,377		1,368
Stock-based compensation expense	35,331		11,743
Non-cash operating lease expense	1,833		1,260
Accretion on short-term investments	(10,215)		(264)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable	1,983		516
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	(3,583)		2,605
Other non-current assets	367		441
Accounts payable	1,797		254
Accrued liabilities	2,082		8,315
Operating lease liabilities	(2,004)		(1,369)
Net cash used in operating activities	(91,259)		(63,392)
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of short-term investments	(525,572)		(289,402)
Maturity of short-term investments	367,499		120,770
Purchase of property and equipment	(860)		(1,594)
Net cash used in investing activities	(158,933)		(170,226)
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from issuances of common stock under benefit plans	4,769		1,305
Payment of offering costs	(834)		(786)
Payment of debt issuance costs	—		(150)
Proceeds from term loan	—		10,000
Proceeds from sale of common stock in a public offering	270,251		216,201
Net cash provided by financing activities	274,186		226,570
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents	23,994		(7,048)
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period	33,685		51,665
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period	$	57,679	$	44,617
Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information:
Cash paid for interest	$	864	$	332
Supplemental disclosures of noncash investing and financing activities:
Net unrealized loss on short-term investments	$	51	$	2,253
Purchase of property and equipment in accounts payable	$	—	$	33
Offering costs in accounts payable	$	—	$	14
Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for new operating lease liabilities	$	—	$	950
Decrease in right-of -use assets and liabilities from lease modifications	$	1,821	$	—

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed financial statements.

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

Notes to Condensed Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

1. Organization and Description of Business

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Company” or "Pliant" or “we” or “our” or “us”) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis with an initial focus on treating fibrosis by inhibiting integrin-mediated activation of TGF-ß. Fibrosis refers to the abnormal thickening and scarring of connective tissue due to the production and deposition of excess collagen in the extra-cellular matrix. Fibrosis can occur in many different tissues including lung, liver, kidney, muscle, skin and the GI tract, and often causes severe and debilitating disease leading to organ failure. The Company is located in South San Francisco, California, and was incorporated in the state of Delaware in June 2015.

Public Offering

In January 2023, the Company completed a public offering of 9,583,334 shares of common stock, including the exercise in full of the underwriters' option to purchase 1,250,000 additional shares of common stock. The shares were offered at a price of $30.00 per share, resulting in aggregate proceeds of approximately $269.5 million, net of underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses payable by us.

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited interim condensed financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and follow the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), for interim financial reporting. As permitted under those rules, certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by U.S. GAAP have been condensed or omitted, and accordingly the unaudited interim condensed financial statements do not include all of the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. These unaudited interim condensed financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as our annual financial statements and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) that are necessary for a fair presentation of the Company's financial information. The results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2023 or for any other interim period or for any other future year.

The financial information included herein should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and related notes in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 9, 2023 (the "2022 10-K"). Certain prior year reported amounts may have been reclassified to conform with the current period presentation.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, and expenses as well as the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of and during the reporting period. The Company bases its estimates and assumptions on historical experience when available and on various factors that it believes to be reasonable under the circumstances. Significant estimates and assumptions reflected in these financial statements include, but are not limited to, stock-based compensation expense and accruals and prepayments for research and development costs. The Company assesses estimates on an ongoing basis, however, actual results could materially differ from those estimates.

Significant Accounting Policies

There have been no significant changes to the accounting policies during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared to the significant accounting policies described in Note 2 of the "Notes to the Financial Statements" in the Company's audited financial statements included in the 2022 10-K.

3. Financial Instruments

The Company’s short-term investments consist of U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. Government agency securities and highly rated, investment-grade corporate debt securities with original maturities beyond three months at the date of purchase. The Company has classified and accounted for its short-term investments as available-for-sale securities as the Company may sell these securities at any time even prior to maturity and such investments represent cash available for current operations. As a result, short-term investments may include securities with maturities beyond twelve months that are classified within current assets in the Balance Sheets. The Company’s short-term investments classified as available-for-sale are carried at fair market value with unrealized gains or losses recognized in the statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

The Company’s cash equivalent Money Market Funds are classified as Level 1 because they are valued using quoted active market prices. The fair value of the Company’s U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. government agency securities and corporate debt securities are classified as Level 2 because they are valued using observable inputs to quoted market prices other than Level 1 prices, benchmark yields, reported trades, broker/dealer quotes or alternative pricing sources with reasonable levels of price transparency and include U.S. government agency securities, U.S. Treasury securities and corporate debt securities.

There were no assets or liabilities recorded at fair value to the condensed balance sheets using Level 3 inputs as of September 30, 2023 and as of December 31, 2022.

The following tables show the Company’s Money Market Funds, U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. government agency securities and corporate debt securities by significant investment category as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 (in thousands):


	As of September 30, 2023
	Adjusted Cost		Unrealized Gains		Unrealized Losses		Market Value
Level 1:
Money Market Funds	$	52,246	$	—	$	—	$	52,246
Level 2:
U.S. Treasury securities included in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments	33,472		—		(82)		33,390
U.S. government agency securities included in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments	120,377		—		(599)		119,778
Corporate debt securities included in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments	313,991		—		(1,226)		312,765
Total financial assets	$	520,086	$	—	$	(1,907)	$	518,179


	As of December 31, 2022
	Adjusted Cost		Unrealized Gains		Unrealized Losses		Market Value
Level 1:
Money Market Funds	$	28,312	$	—	$	—	$	28,312
Level 2:
U.S. Treasury securities included in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments	4,446		—		(5)		4,441
U.S. government agency securities included in short-term investments	28,746		—		(111)		28,635
Corporate debt securities included in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments	266,267		45		(1,887)		264,425
Total financial assets	$	327,771	$	45	$	(2,003)	$	325,813

The Company may sell certain of its short-term securities prior to their stated maturities for reasons including, but not limited to, managing liquidity, credit risk, duration and asset allocation.

There were no liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. The Company evaluates transfers between levels at the end of each reporting period and there have been no transfers between fair value measurement levels during the nine months ended September 30, 2023. In addition, there were no assets or liabilities measured at fair value on a non-recurring basis as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had not recorded any impairment related to other-than-temporary declines in the fair value of short-term investments. Short-term investments are considered impaired when a decline in fair value is judged to be other-than-temporary. The Company consults with its investment managers and considers available quantitative and qualitative evidence in evaluating potential impairment of its short-term investments on a quarterly basis. If the cost of an individual investment exceeds its fair value, the Company evaluates, among other factors, general market conditions, the duration and extent to which the fair value is less than cost and its intent and ability to hold the investment.

The Company records interest income, accretion income and amortization expense on Money Market Funds and U.S. Treasury, U.S. government agency and corporate debt securities to interest and other income (expense), net in its condensed statement of operations and comprehensive loss.

4. Property and Equipment, net

Property and equipment, net consisted of the following (in thousands):


	As of September 30, 2023		As of December 31, 2022
Laboratory equipment	$	10,351	$	9,581
Leasehold improvements	1,663		1,650
Construction-in-progress	49		66
Computer equipment and software	$	124	$	30
Total property and equipment, gross	12,187		11,327
Less: Accumulated depreciation	(8,218)		(6,841)
Total property and equipment, net	$	3,969	$	4,486

Depreciation expense for each of the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 was $0.5 million. Depreciation expense for each of the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 was $1.4 million.

5. Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets

Prepaid expenses and other current assets consisted of the following (in thousands):


	As of September 30, 2023		As of December 31, 2022
Prepaid research and development	$	6,700	$	3,421
Prepaid insurance	95		1,427
Prepaid licenses	1,138		959
Interest receivable	2,039		1,078
Other	668		173
Total prepaid expenses and other current assets	$	10,640	$	7,058

6. Accrued Liabilities

Accrued liabilities consisted of the following (in thousands):


	As of September 30, 2023		As of December 31, 2022
Accrued compensation and benefits	$	6,680	$	7,200
Other accrued liabilities	1,630		1,458
Total accrued liabilities	$	8,310	$	8,658

Accrued compensation and benefits consist primarily of accrued bonuses and accrued vacation.

7. Long-term Debt

In May 2022, we entered into a term loan facility (the “Oxford Loan Agreement”) with Oxford Finance LLC (the "Lender") for up to $100.0 million. At closing, we entered into a term loan for $10.0 million, and in the first quarter of 2023 we declined our option to draw an additional $40.0 million from the first and second tranche. The Oxford Loan Agreement provides for an additional $50.0 million over two tranches, $25.0 million of which is at our option upon the satisfaction of certain conditions related to the development of bexotegrast and one of our preclinical product candidates, and $25.0 million at the Lender's discretion. In connection with the Oxford Loan Agreement, we granted a security interest in substantially all of our current and future assets. There are no warrants or financial covenants associated with the Oxford Loan Agreement.

Borrowings under the Oxford Loan Agreement bear interest at a rate per annum equal to 1-month term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus 8.5%, subject to an agreed upon floor and cap. The Oxford Loan Agreement requires the Company to make monthly interest-only payments until July 1, 2026 (extendable to July 1, 2027) with monthly interest and principal payments thereafter until the maturity date of May 1, 2027 (extendable to May 1, 2028).

The estimated fair value of the term loan as of September 30, 2023 was measured using Level 2 and Level 3 inputs and approximates the carrying value recorded to the condensed balance sheet. The effective interest rate for the term loan is 12.69% and interest expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 was $0.3 million and $0.9 million, respectively.

Future maturities of debt as of September 30, 2023 are as follows (in thousands):


	As of September 30, 2023
2026	$	5,455
2027	4,545
Thereafter	—
Total payments	10,000
Less: unamortized debt issuance costs	(113)
Accretion of final payment	134
Total	$	10,021

8. Novartis Collaboration and License Agreement (the "Novartis Agreement")

In 2019, we entered into the Novartis Agreement with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. (“Novartis”) for the development and commercialization of our preclinical product candidate, PLN-1474, and up to three additional integrin research targets. On February 17, 2023, Novartis exercised their right to terminate the Novartis Agreement as part of their new strategy focusing on a limited number of therapeutic areas. The termination took effect on April 18, 2023, and effective upon the termination, all rights and licenses granted to Novartis under the Novartis Agreement, including PLN-1474, the related investigational new drug (“IND”), and the validated research target, reverted back to us. The payment obligations of Novartis with respect to future milestones, royalties and research and development funding were also terminated.

Revenues associated with the Novartis Agreement for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 were nil and $1.6 million, respectively and $1.5 million and $7.7 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively.

9. Preferred Stock

Under the Company’s Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (“Certificate of Incorporation”), the Company is authorized to issue two classes of shares: preferred and common stock. The preferred stock may be issued in series, and the Company’s board of directors is authorized to determine the rights, preferences, and terms of each series. These rights, preferences and terms could include dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemptions, liquidation preferences and sinking fund terms. As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company was authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock and there was no outstanding preferred stock as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022.

10. Common Stock

As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company was authorized to issue 300,000,000 shares of common stock at a par value of $0.0001 per share. The common stock has the following rights and privileges:

Voting

The holders of shares of common stock are entitled to one vote for each share of common stock held at any meeting of stockholders.

Dividends

The holders of shares of common stock are entitled to receive dividends, when declared by the Company’s board of directors. Cash dividends may not be declared or paid to holders of shares of common stock until all unpaid dividends on preferred stock have been paid in accordance with their terms. No dividends have been declared or paid by the Company since its inception. The terms of the Oxford Loan Agreement restrict our ability to declare and pay dividends.

Liquidation

Subject to the preferential rights of holders of preferred stock then outstanding, the holders of shares of common stock are entitled to share ratably in the Company’s remaining assets available for distribution to its stockholders in the event of any voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company.

Shares reserved for future issuance


	As of September 30, 2023	As of December 31, 2022
Outstanding stock option awards	6,852,652	5,569,567
Vesting of RSUs	916,708	507,925
Vesting of PSUs	354,534	531,796
Shares of common stock available for future grants under the 2020 Stock Option and Incentive Plan	2,795,354	2,937,769
Shares of common stock available for future issuance under the 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan	805,756	888,184
Shares of common stock available for future issuance under the 2022 Inducement Plan	850,000	1,000,000
Total shares reserved for future issuance	12,575,004	11,435,241

11. Equity Incentive Plans and Stock-Based Compensation

In 2015, the Company’s board of directors adopted the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan (as amended in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the “2015 Plan”), which provided for the grant of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options or other awards including stock appreciation rights and restricted stock awards to the Company’s employees, officers, directors, advisors, and consultants. In May 2020, the board of directors adopted the 2020 Stock Options and Incentive Plan (the “2020 Plan”) and suspended the 2015 Plan. Awards outstanding under either the 2015 Plan or 2020 Plan that are cancelled, expire or otherwise terminated subsequent to May 2020 will become available for issuance as common stock under the 2020 Plan. Additionally, the 2020 Plan is subject to automatic increases on January 1 of each year beginning January 1, 2021. The number of shares added each January 1 will be equal to the lesser of (i) 5% of the outstanding shares on the immediately preceding December 31 or (ii) such amount as determined by the administrator of the 2020 Plan, which is the compensation committee of the board of directors of the Company.

The 2020 Plan provides for the grant of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options or other awards including stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards and restricted stock units to the Company’s employees, officers, directors, advisors, and consultants.

In 2022, the Board of Directors adopted the 2022 Inducement Plan (“Inducement Plan”), under which the Company may grant restricted stock units, stock options, stock appreciation rights, and restricted stock awards to new hires.

Options under the 2020 Plan may be granted for periods of up to 10 years and at prices no less than the market price of the Company’s common stock on the date of grant, provided, however, that the exercise price of an incentive stock option granted to a 10% shareholder shall not be less than 110% of the estimated fair value of the shares on the date of grant and the option is not exercisable after the expiration of five years from the date of grant.

Incentive Stock Options and Nonqualified Stock Options

Stock options issued under either the 2015 Plan or the 2020 Plan generally vest over four years and expire ten years from the date of grant. Certain options provide for accelerated vesting if there is a change in control, as defined in the respective plans.

The Company used the Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate stock-based compensation expense for stock option awards with the following assumptions:


	Three months ended September 30,		Nine months ended September 30,
	2023	2022	2023	2022
Expected volatility	82.66% - 83.22%	78.96% - 79.53%	80.97% - 83.22%	73.78% - 79.53%
Risk-free interest rate	3.95% - 4.38%	2.86% - 3.59%	3.42%- 4.38%	1.64% - 3.59%
Expected dividend	—	—	—	—
Expected term (in years)	6.00 - 6.08	5.77 - 6.08	5.31- 6.08	5.33 - 6.08
Underlying common stock fair value	$16.01 - $18.80	$7.67 - $24.23	$16.01 - $34.65	$4.92 - $24.23

A summary of option activity under the 2015 Plan and the 2020 Plan is as follows:


	Number of Options	Weighted- Average Exercise Price per Share		Weighted- Average Remaining Contractual Term (in Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value
Outstanding as of December 31, 2022	5,569,567	$	13.34	7.96	$	43,696
Granted	1,899,214	28.83
Exercised	(504,684)	6.86
Forfeited	(111,445)	17.64
Outstanding as of September 30, 2023	6,852,652	$	18.04	8.01	$	29,986
Exercisable as of September 30, 2023	3,150,334	$	14.46	7.13	$	20,383
Vested and expected to vest as of September 30, 2023	6,852,652	$	18.04	8.01	$	29,986

As of September 30, 2023, there were $50.7 million of unrecognized compensation costs that are expected to be recognized over the weighted-average period of 2.6 years related to stock options. Aggregate intrinsic value represents the difference between the fair value of the underlying common stock and the exercise price as of September 30, 2023.

Restricted Stock Units

The service-based condition for restricted stock units ("RSUs") is generally satisfied over two years or three years. The following table sets forth the outstanding RSUs and related activity for the nine months ended September 30, 2023:


	Restricted Stock Units	Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Unvested and outstanding at December 31, 2022	507,925	$	17.43
Granted	683,703	34.36
Released	(247,488)	17.43
Forfeited	(27,432)	24.21
Unvested and outstanding at September 30, 2023	916,708	$	29.86

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had $21.2 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to outstanding RSUs expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 1.91 years.

Performance-Based Restricted Stock Units

Performance-based restricted stock units ("PSUs") vest upon the achievement of market and performance conditions. Market conditions include the Company's total shareholder return ("TSR") relative to the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index over the term of the award ending on June 30, 2024, and performance conditions consist of multiple clinical development milestones associated with bexotegrast. The performance vesting conditions generally must be satisfied within a two-year period and are forfeited if the vesting conditions are not met. Additionally, the number of shares of common stock issued upon vesting will range from 0% to 200% of the PSUs based on achievement of certain targets. The PSUs granted were allocated evenly between the market based, TSR, awards and those with performance conditions associated with clinical development milestones.

The fair value of PSUs associated with clinical development vesting conditions were determined to be equal to the fair market value of the Company's share price on the date of grant. The fair value of the TSR PSUs were derived from a Monte Carlo simulation model that used the following key assumptions:


Valuation date share price	$	17.57
Award term (years)	1.92
Volatility	70.62		%
Correlation coefficient	0.3508
Average peer group volatility	79.69		%
Average peer group correlation coefficient	0.4397
Risk free interest rate	2.84		%

As of September 30, 2023, there were 354,534 PSUs associated with the TSR goal at target level achievement of 100% outstanding with a weighted average grant date fair value of $29.15 per share. There were no additional grants, forfeitures or vesting of the PSUs associated with market-based vesting conditions during the nine months ended September 30, 2023.

In March and July 2023 the second and the third milestones applicable to PSUs under the clinical development vesting conditions were achieved. There are no remaining PSUs with clinical development performance conditions outstanding as of September 30, 2023.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had $4.2 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to unvested PSUs expected to be recognized over a remaining weighted-average period of 0.79 years.

2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan

In June 2020, the Company adopted the Company's 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the "2020 ESPP"). The Company reserved 700,000 shares of common stock for future issuance under the plan. The 2020 ESPP provides that the number of shares reserved and available for issuance will automatically increase on January 1 of each calendar year, beginning January 1, 2021, by the least of (1) 1.0% of the total number of shares of common stock outstanding on December 31 of the preceding calendar year, (2) 700,000 shares or (3) such lesser amount as determined by the administrator of the 2020 ESPP, which is the compensation committee of the board of directors of the Company.

Under the 2020 ESPP, eligible employees may purchase shares of our common stock through payroll deductions that cannot exceed 15% of each employee’s salary. The 2020 ESPP provides for a nine-month offering period. At the end of the purchase period, eligible employees are permitted to purchase shares of common stock at the lower of 85% of the fair market value at the beginning of the offering period or 85% of the fair market value at the end of the purchase period, subject to tax limitations on the total value of the purchase. The 2020 ESPP is considered a compensatory plan, and the Company recorded $0.1 million and $0.4 million in stock-based compensation expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively. There was $0.1 million and $0.2 million in stock-based compensation expense attributed to the 2020 ESPP for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, 39,132 shares and 82,428 shares, respectively, of common stock were issued under the 2020 ESPP with 805,756 shares remaining available for issuance under the 2020 ESPP. The Company used Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate stock-based compensation expense for the 2020 ESPP with the following assumptions:


	Nine months ended September 30,
	2023	2022
Risk-free interest rate	5.20% - 5.47%	0.60% - 3.34%
Expected term of options (in years)	0.50	0.50
Expected stock price volatility	54.78% - 69.15%	63.17% - 82.02%
Expected dividends	—	—

Stock-Based Compensation Expense

The following table presents the components and classification of stock-based compensation expense for the Company’s stock-based awards for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Restricted stock awards	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	36
Stock options and ESPP	5,498		3,087		15,530		9,986
Restricted stock units	2,990		800		8,559		800
Performance-based restricted stock units	1,875		921		11,242		921
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	10,363	$	4,808	$	35,331	$	11,743
Research and development expenses	$	4,378	$	2,999	$	14,520	$	6,675
General and administrative expenses	$	5,985	$	1,809	$	20,811	$	5,068

12. Income Taxes

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company did not record an income tax provision. The Company will continue to maintain a 100% valuation allowance on total deferred tax assets. The Company believes it is more likely than not that the related deferred tax asset will not be realized. As a result, the Company’s effective tax rate will remain at 0% because there are no estimated or discrete items that would impact the tax provision.

13. Commitments and Contingencies

Purchase Commitments

The Company has contractual arrangements with research and development organizations and suppliers; however, these contracts are generally cancellable on 30 days’ notice and the obligations under these contracts are largely based on services performed.

14. Leases

New Lease

On September 28, 2023, the Company entered into a lease agreement for a premise consisting of approximately 100,904 square feet located at Oyster Point Blvd, South San Francisco, California (the "Oyster Point Lease"), which the Company intends to use as laboratory and office space. The lease term of approximately seven years will start upon the Landlord’s substantial completion of tenant improvements, and may be extended for a period of eight years at then prevailing market rates for a comparable property. Future lease payments are approximately $43.7 million and are expected to start in the third quarter of 2024. Additionally, the Company is required to provide a letter of credit to the Landlord in the amount of $1.4 million in connection with the Oyster Point Lease. The Company has not recognized a right-of-use asset ("ROU") or aggregate lease liability as of September 30, 2023 for this lease as the Company did not control the underlying assets at any time as of September 30, 2023.

Existing leases

In conjunction with the Oyster Point Lease, we modified the lease term of our existing lease to end upon the start date of the Oyster Point Lease. As a result of this modification, we reduced our lease liability and our right-of-use asset by $1.8 million as of September 30, 2023. Additionally, we paid a refundable security deposit of approximately $0.4 million at inception of the lease term which has been reclassified from other non-current assets to other current assets in the condensed balance sheet at September 30, 2023.

Operating lease ROU assets and liabilities on our condensed balance sheets represent the present value of our remaining lease payments over the remaining lease terms. We use our incremental borrowing rate to calculate the present value of our lease payments, as the implicit rates in our leases are not readily determinable. Operating lease liabilities are based on the net present value of the remaining lease payments over the remaining lease term. In determining the present value of lease payments, the Company used its incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the date of adoption of Topic 842 or the date of lease modification. The undiscounted future non-cancellable lease payments of the Company's operating lease liabilities as of September 30, 2023 were as follows (in thousands):


	Operating Lease
2023 (remainder of the year)	$	569
2024	1,624
Total undiscounted lease payments	$	2,193
Less: Present value discount	(132)
Total current operating lease liabilities	$	2,061
Total non-current operating lease liabilities	$	—
Weighted-average remaining lease term	9.3 months
Weighted-average incremental borrowing rate	13.3		%

Variable lease costs comprise primarily of the Company's proportionate share of operating expenses, property taxes, and insurance. Short-term lease expense and variable lease payments recorded in operating expenses were immaterial for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022. Lease expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 are as follows (in thousands)


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Operating lease costs	$	698	$	655	$	2,142	$	1,783
Other variable costs	130		131		620		407
Total expense	$	828	$	786	$	2,762	$	2,190

Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of operating lease liabilities was $2.6 million and $1.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

15. Defined Contribution Plan

The Company sponsors a defined contribution plan under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code covering substantially all full-time U.S. employees. Employee contributions are voluntary and are determined on an individual basis subject to the maximum allowable under federal tax regulations. The Company made contributions to the plan of $0.2 million and $0.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The Company made contributions of $0.8 million and $0.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

16. Net Loss Per Share Attributable to Common Stockholders

The following outstanding shares of potentially dilutive securities were excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders for the periods presented, because including them would have been antidilutive:


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023	2022
Options to purchase common stock	6,852,652	5,474,346
Restricted stock units	916,708	523,475
Performance-based restricted stock units*	—	—
Total	7,769,360	5,997,821
*No unvested performance-based restricted stock units are included above as none of the contingently issuable shares would be issued assuming the end of our reporting period was the end of the relevant PSU award contingency period

A reconciliation of the numerator and denominator used in the calculation of the basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders is as follows (in thousands, except share and per share amounts):


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Net loss per share:
Net loss	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Net loss attributable to common stockholders - basic and diluted	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)
Denominator
Weighted-average common shares outstanding used to calculate net loss per share attributable to common stockholders - basic and diluted	59,688,451		46,799,058		58,319,608		39,735,342
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders - basic and diluted	$	(0.70)	$	(0.65)	$	(2.06)	$	(2.22)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our condensed financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, or this Report, as well as our audited financial statements and related notes included in our 2022 10-K. This discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements based upon current beliefs, plans and expectations that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, such as statements regarding our plans, objectives, expectations, intention, beliefs and projections. Our actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, including those set forth in the section titled “Risk Factors” under Part II, Item 1A of this Report and under Part I, Item 1A of our 2022 10-K. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potentially,” “predict,” “should,” “will” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate we have conducted exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.

Overview

We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases. Our initial focus is on treating fibrosis by inhibiting integrin-mediated activation of TGF-β. We have applied our deep understanding of fibrosis biology, along with our medicinal chemistry and translational medicine expertise to develop a set of proprietary tools designed to discover and de-risk product candidates quickly and efficiently. Our wholly-owned lead product candidate, bexotegrast (PLN-74809), is an oral, small molecule, dual selective inhibitor of αvß6 and αvß1 integrins that we are developing for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, and primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC. We have recently initiated BEACON-IPF, a Phase 2b trial of bexotegrast in patients with IPF. BEACON-IPF is a 52-week, multinational, randomized, dose-ranging, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating bexotegrast at once-daily doses of 160 mg or 320 mg in approximately 270 patients with IPF.

We have also developed a second product candidate, PLN-1474, a Phase 2-ready, oral, small molecule selective inhibitor of the αvß1 integrin for the treatment of advanced liver fibrosis associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. PLN-1474 was licensed to Novartis in 2019, and, as part of a broad strategic realignment, Novartis determined in early 2023 to discontinue clinical development in NASH and, as a result, discontinue development of PLN-1474. In February 2023, Novartis exercised its right to terminate the Novartis Agreement, and in April 2023, returned global rights to PLN-1474 to Pliant.

In December 2022, we filed an investigational new drug (IND) application for our third clinical program, PLN-101095, a dual inhibitor of αvß8 and αvß1 integrins for the treatment of solid tumors resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors. In January 2023, we received FDA clearance for our IND and initiated a Phase 1 trial of PLN-101095 in the second quarter of 2023.

In addition to our clinical programs, we are currently advancing a preclinical integrin-based program targeting muscular dystrophies.

Third Quarter and Recent Highlights

Bexotegrast Highlights

•Enrollment continues in BEACON-IPF, a Phase 2b trial of bexotegrast in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). BEACON-IPF is a 52-week, multinational, randomized, dose-ranging, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating bexotegrast at once-daily doses of 160 mg or 320 mg. BEACON-IPF is expected to enroll approximately 270 patients with IPF.

•Positive safety and efficacy data from INTEGRIS-PSC Phase 2a trial in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). At once-daily doses of 40 mg, 80 mg and 160 mg, bexotegrast was well tolerated over 12 weeks of treatment with no drug-related severe or serious adverse events. At all doses tested, bexotegrast reduced both Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) scores and PRO-C3 levels at Week 12 relative to placebo, with statistically significant differences at the 160 mg dose. These data were selected for an oral late-breaker presentation at next week’s American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases’ (AASLD) The Liver Meeting® 2023.

•Positive independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) review of the ongoing of INTEGRIS-PSC Phase 2a trial. This regularly scheduled DSMB review was held in October after the completion of enrollment of the 320 mg dose cohort. The DSMB examined the safety data from all patients enrolled, with all patients completing at least 12

weeks of treatment, and recommended the INTEGRIS-PSC trial continue without modification.

•INTEGRIS-PSC interim 12-week 320 mg dose data expected in the first quarter of 2024. This trial is evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of bexotegrast at 320 mg versus placebo at 12 and 24 weeks of treatment in approximately 28 patients with PSC. The trial is also evaluating exploratory efficacy endpoints including fibrosis biomarkers such as serum PRO-C3 and ELF score, changes in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and liver imaging. Twenty- four week data from the 320 mg dose group is expected in mid-2024.

Pipeline Programs

•Phase 1 trial of PLN-101095 in solid tumors is enrolling. This is a Phase 1 open-label trial of PLN-101095, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of αvβ8 and αvβ1 integrins designed to block TGF-β activation in the tumor microenvironment. This trial is enrolling patients with solid tumors that are resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

•Muscular dystrophy program on track for regulatory filing in the first quarter of 2024. PLN-101325 is a monoclonal antibody designed to act as an allosteric agonist of integrin α7β1. Filing for first-in-human clinical studies in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is expected in the first quarter of 2024.

Since inception, we have had significant operating losses. Our net loss was $41.5 million and $120.2 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023. As of September 30, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $458.6 million and cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $523.6 million. We expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect our research and development expenses, general and administrative expenses, and capital expenditures will increase in connection with our ongoing activities, as we:

•perform research and development activities to identify and develop product candidates;

•advance product candidates into and through clinical development;

•require the manufacture of supplies to support research and development, preclinical studies and clinical trials;

•seek regulatory approvals for any product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

•expand our operational, financial and management systems and increase personnel to support our clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization efforts and our operations as a public company;

•maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio; and

•invest in or in-license other technologies or product candidates.

Components of Operations

Revenue

We have not generated any revenue from product sales and do not expect to do so in the near future. Our revenue to date is derived from a Collaboration and License Agreement with Novartis, or the "Novartis Agreement," that was executed in 2019.

Under the terms of the Novartis Agreement, we received an upfront license fee payment of $50.0 million for the worldwide, exclusive license to PLN-1474 and an additional $29.0 million upon the achievement of specified research and development milestones. As part of a broad strategic realignment, Novartis has discontinued clinical development in NASH and, as a result, discontinued development of PLN-1474. In February 2023, Novartis issued a termination notice for the collaboration and license agreement, and returned global rights to Pliant for PLN-1474.

Following termination of the Novartis Agreement, we are no longer eligible to receive additional milestone or royalty payments under the arrangement; however, we continued to earn research and development services revenues through the effective termination date of April 18, 2023. We recognized nil and $1.6 million in revenues for performing research and development activities associated with PLN-1474 and integrin research targets in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively.

Operating Expenses

Research and Development

Our research and development expenses consist of expenses incurred in connection with the development of our product candidates. Research and development expenses include:

•employee-related expenses, which include salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for our research and development personnel;

•expenses incurred under agreements with third-party contract organizations for pre-clinical studies, clinical trials and consultants that conduct research and development activities on our behalf;

•costs associated with the manufacture of supplies to support research and development, preclinical studies and clinical trials;

•depreciation of laboratory equipment and costs of equipment and supplies;

•costs associated with technology and intellectual property licenses; and

•facilities and other allocated expenses, which include expenses for rent and other facility related costs and other supplies.

General and Administrative

Our general and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for our general and administrative personnel, allocated facilities costs, insurance and other expenses for outside professional services, including legal, marketing, investor relations, human resource and accounting services.

Interest and Other Income (Expense), net

Our interest and other income (expense), net consists of interest, accretion income and amortization expense on cash and cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and realized gains and losses on investments.

Interest Expense

Our interest expense is derived from a term loan under the Oxford Loan Agreement that we entered into in May 2022. Borrowings under the Oxford Loan Agreement bear interest at a rate per annum equal to 1-month term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus 8.5%, subject to an agreed upon floor and cap.

Financial Operations Overview

Comparison of the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands)


	Three Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		$ Change
Revenue	$	—	$	1,482	$	(1,482)
Operating expenses:
Research and development	(32,339)		(24,606)		(7,733)
General and administrative	(15,346)		(8,823)		(6,523)
Total operating expenses	(47,685)		(33,429)		(14,256)
Loss from operations	(47,685)		(31,947)		(15,738)
Interest and other income (expense), net	6,515		1,633		4,882
Interest expense	(317)		(301)		(16)
Net loss	$	(41,487)	$	(30,615)	$	(10,872)

Revenue

The decrease in revenue of $1.5 million is attributable to decreased research and development services resulting from the termination of the Novartis Agreement.

Research and development expenses

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):


	Three Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		$ Change
Employee-related expenses	$	11,844	$	7,303	$	4,541
Outside and consulting services for preclinical studies and research and development activities by third-party contract organizations	2,555		3,958		(1,403)
Clinical trials expenses	14,066		8,645		5,421
Depreciation of lab equipment and costs of equipment and supplies	1,366		1,341		25
Facilities and other allocated expenses	2,494		3,328		(834)
Technology and intellectual property licenses	14		31		(17)
Total research and development expenses	$	32,339	$	24,606	$	7,733

Research and development expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023 increased $7.7 million, primarily due to employee-related expenses, driven by increased headcount, salaries and stock-based compensation expense and manufacturing expense for IPF Phase 2b clinical drug supply. These costs were partially offset by a decrease in preclinical manufacturing costs associated with activities that were substantially complete in 2022 and by a decrease in facilities and other allocated charges.

We do not allocate our costs by product candidates or by preclinical programs as these are in early stages of clinical trials or development, and our internal expenses are not allocated between product candidates and programs. Although external third-party costs are allocable between product candidates and programs, we do not perform this allocation. We expect our research and development expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we continue to invest in research and development activities related to developing our product candidates and our preclinical programs and as they advance into later stages of development.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023 increased $6.5 million, primarily attributable to employee-related costs, driven by increased headcount, salaries and stock-based compensation expense.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we continue to build our administrative function to support our growth in operations.

Interest and Other Income (Expense), net

Interest and other income (expense), net increased $4.9 million, attributable to higher interest income due to increased yields and an increase in short-term investments due to current year financing activities.

Comparison of the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands)


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		$ Change
Revenue	$	1,580	$	7,720	$	(6,140)
Operating expenses:
Research and development	(94,614)		(71,822)		(22,792)
General and administrative	(44,074)		(25,698)		(18,376)
Total operating expenses	(138,688)		(97,520)		(41,168)
Loss from operations	(137,108)		(89,800)		(47,308)
Interest and other income (expense), net	17,827		2,013		15,814
Interest expense	(946)		(474)		(472)
Net loss	$	(120,227)	$	(88,261)	$	(31,966)

Revenue

The revenue decrease of $6.1 million is attributable to decreased research and development services associated with the termination of the Novartis Agreement.

Research and development expenses

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		$ Change
Employee-related expenses	$	35,119	$	19,770	$	15,349
Outside and consulting services for preclinical studies and research and development activities by third-party contract organizations	11,399		20,770		(9,371)
Clinical trials expenses	36,132		19,956		16,176
Depreciation of lab equipment and costs of equipment and supplies	4,230		4,377		(147)
Facilities and other allocated expenses	7,666		6,882		784
Technology and intellectual property licenses	68		67		1
Total research and development expenses	$	94,614	$	71,822	$	22,792

Research and development expenses increased $22.8 million, primarily due to employee-related expenses, driven by increased headcount, salaries and stock-based compensation expense, IPF Phase 2b clinical trial expenses, manufacturing activities for clinical drug supply and facilities and other allocated charges. These costs were partially offset by a decrease in preclinical manufacturing costs associated with activities that were substantially complete in 2022.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses increased $18.4 million, primarily attributable to employee-related costs, driven by increased headcount, salaries and stock-based compensation expense, consulting and other professional services expense.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we continue to build our administrative function to support our growth in operations.

Interest and Other Income (Expense), net

Interest and other income (expense), net increased $15.8 million attributable to higher interest income due to increased yields and an increase in short-term investments due to current year financing activities.

Interest Expense

Interest expense increased $0.5 million due to the interest incurred from our term loan under the Oxford Loan Agreement, issued in the second quarter of 2022.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Overview

As of September 30, 2023, we had $523.6 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Our short-term investments consist of U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. Government agency securities and highly rated, investment-grade corporate debt securities.

In May 2022 we entered into a Loan and Security Agreement (the “Oxford Loan Agreement”) with Oxford Finance LLC (or "Oxford"). Upon closing of the Oxford Loan Agreement, we drew $10.0 million, and in the first quarter of 2023 we decided to forego drawing an additional $40.0 million available to us. A further $50.0 million may become available to us, $25.0 million upon the achievement of pre-determined development milestones and $25.0 million at Oxford's discretion.

In July 2022, we completed an underwritten public offering of 12,432,432 shares of common stock, including the exercise in full of the underwriters' option to purchase 1,621,621 additional shares of common stock. The shares were offered at a price to the public of $18.50 per share, resulting in aggregate proceeds of approximately $215.4 million, net of underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses, payable by us.

In January 2023, we completed an underwritten public offering of 9,583,334 shares of common stock, including the exercise in full of the underwriters' option to purchase 1,250,000 additional shares of common stock. The shares were offered at a price of $30.00 per share, resulting in aggregate proceeds of approximately $269.5 million, net of underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses, payable by us.

We believe that our existing capital resources will be sufficient to meet our projected operating requirements to the second half of 2026. We have based these estimates on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could utilize our available

capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Further, our operating plan may change, and we may need additional funds to meet operational needs and capital requirements for product development and commercialization sooner than planned.

Our operations have been financed primarily through the issuance and sale of convertible preferred stock, issuance of common stock, debt and our collaboration with Novartis. During the third quarter of 2021, we entered into a Controlled Equity OfferingSM Sales Agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., as sales agent, pursuant to which we may issue and sell shares of common stock. In March 2023, we filed a prospectus registering the offer and sale of up to $150.0 million of shares of common stock from time to time pursuant to the Sales Agreement. The issuance and sale of these shares pursuant to the Sales Agreement are deemed an “at-the-market” offering and are registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. As of September 30, 2023, we had not issued any shares pursuant to any at-the-market offerings.

Funding Requirements

Our primary use of cash is to fund operating expenses, primarily research and development expenditures. Cash used to fund operating expenses is impacted by the timing of when we pay these expenses, as reflected in the change in our outstanding accounts payable, accrued expenses and prepaid expenses.

Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the following:

•the initiation, progress, timing, costs and results of preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates;

•the clinical development plans we establish for these product candidates;

•the timelines of our clinical trials and the overall costs to conduct and complete the clinical trials, which may be impacted by global events and macroeconomic conditions, including the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19;

•the number and characteristics of product candidates that we develop;

•the outcome, timing and cost of meeting regulatory requirements established by the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities including but not limited to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA);

•whether we enter into any collaboration agreements and the terms of any such agreements;

•the cost of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing our patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

•the cost of defending intellectual property disputes, including patent infringement actions brought by third parties against us or our product candidates;

•the effect of competing technological and market developments;

•the cost and timing of completion of commercial-scale outsourced manufacturing activities;

•the cost and timing of achieving favorable pricing and reimbursement agreements with the pricing authorities in each market of interest, including of securing a positive recommendation after undergoing a health technology assessment by health technology authorities;

•the cost of establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval in regions where we choose to commercialize our products on our own; and

•the cost of operating as a public company.

Further, our operating plan may change, and we may need additional funds to meet operational needs and capital requirements for clinical trials and other research and development expenditures. If we need to raise additional capital to fund our operations, funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing when needed, we may have to delay, reduce the scope of or suspend one or more of our preclinical studies, clinical trials, research and development programs or commercialization efforts. We may seek to raise any necessary additional capital through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations and other licensing arrangements. If we raise capital through additional debt financing, we may be subject to covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional capital through marketing and distribution arrangements or other collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish certain valuable rights to our product candidates, technologies, future revenue streams or research programs or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us.

Cash Flows

Comparison of the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022

The following summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated (in thousands):


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022
Net cash used in operating activities	$	(91,259)	$	(63,392)
Net cash used in investing activities	(158,933)		(170,226)
Net cash provided by financing activities	274,186		226,570
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents	$	23,994	$	(7,048)

Cash Used in Operating Activities

Net cash used in operating activities increased $27.9 million over the prior year attributable to an increase in net loss of $32.0 million, the timing of revenue related cash receipts and cash outlay to settle accrued liabilities.

Cash Used in Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities decreased by $11.3 million year over year primarily due to the use of maturities of investment for operating activities.

Cash Provided by Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities increased $47.6 million primarily due to net proceeds from the Company's January 2023 underwritten public offering.

Contractual Obligations and Other Commitments

Except as mentioned below, there have been no material changes to our contractual obligations and other commitments as of September 30, 2023, as compared to those disclosed in our 2022 10-K.

At September 30, 2023, we had various non-cancelable operating leases for office space and equipment, which expire between December 31,2023 and March 2031. Refer to Note 13 and 14 of our unaudited condensed financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for a discussion of material obligations and commitments.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

During the periods presented, we did not have, nor do we currently have, any off-balance sheet arrangements or holdings in any variable interest entities.

Critical Accounting Polices and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported expenses incurred during the reporting periods. Our estimates are based on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

There have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies and estimates from those described in “Part II, Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our condensed financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Report for more information.

Smaller Reporting Company and Non-Accelerated Filer Status

Based on the market value of our common stock held by our non-affiliates as of June 30, 2022, we were considered a “non-accelerated filer” and a “smaller reporting company,” each effective as of December 31, 2022. Based on the market value of our common stock held by our non-affiliates as of June 30, 2023, we will no longer be a smaller reporting company and will be considered a “large accelerated filer” effective as of December 31, 2023, and thus will be subject to accelerated filing deadlines, as well as the requirements of section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.

The primary objectives of our investment activities are to ensure liquidity and to preserve capital. We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks primarily include interest rate sensitivities. We had cash, cash

equivalents and short-term investments of $523.6 million as of September 30, 2023 which consisted of bank deposits, highly liquid money market funds and short-term investments in U.S. treasury securities, U.S. government agency securities and corporate debt securities. Under the Oxford Loan Agreement, we had a $10.0 million term loan outstanding as of September 30, 2023 which is subject to the movement in interest rates, however the exposure is capped at 2.0%. Due to the short-term maturities of our cash equivalents and short-term investments, an immediate 100 basis point change in interest rates would not have a material effect on the fair market value of our cash equivalents or short-term investments.

To minimize the risk, we maintain our portfolio of cash equivalents and short-term investments in institutional market funds that are composed of U.S. Treasury and U.S. Treasury-backed repurchase agreements or short-term U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. government agency securities and corporate debt securities. We do not believe that inflation, interest rate changes, or exchange rate fluctuations had a significant impact on our results of operations for any periods presented herein. A hypothetical 10% change in interest rates during the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our condensed financial statements.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As of September 30, 2023, management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, performed an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures.

Any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objective and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of September 30, 2023, the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There was no change in our internal controls over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) under the Exchange Act that occurred during the quarter ended September 30, 2023 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II—OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings.

As of the date of this filing, we are not party to any material legal matters or claims. We may become party to legal matters and claims arising in the ordinary course of business. We cannot predict the outcome of any such legal matters or claims, and despite the potential outcomes, the existence thereof may have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Our business faces significant risks. If any of the events or circumstances described in the following risks actually occurs, our business may suffer, the trading price of our common stock could decline and our financial condition or results of operations could be harmed. These risks should be read in conjunction with the other information set forth in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. There may be additional risks faced by our business. Other events that we do not currently anticipate or that we currently deem immaterial also may adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

RISK FACTORS

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred significant net losses since inception and we expect to continue to incur significant net losses for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and have financed our operations principally through equity and debt financing and our prior collaboration with Novartis. We continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations. Our net loss was $123.3 million and $97.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. As of September 30, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $458.6 million. We

have devoted substantially all of our resources and efforts to research and development, and we expect that it will be at least several years, if ever, before we generate revenue from product sales. Even if we receive marketing approval for and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, we expect that we will continue to incur substantial research and development and other expenses in order to further develop and, if approved, market additional potential product candidates.

We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:

•advance our lead product candidate, bexotegrast, and our other product candidates through clinical development, and, if successful, later-stage clinical trials;

•discover and develop new product candidates;

•advance our preclinical development programs into clinical development;

•further develop manufacturing processes and manufacture our product candidates;

•experience delays or interruptions to preclinical studies, clinical trials, our receipt of services from our third-party service providers on whom we rely, or our supply chain due to the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;

•seek regulatory approvals for any product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

•commercialize bexotegrast, our other product candidates and any future product candidates, if approved;

•increase the amount of research and development activities to identify and develop product candidates;

•hire additional clinical development, quality control, scientific and management personnel;

•expand our operational, financial and management systems and increase personnel, including personnel to support our clinical development and manufacturing efforts;

•establish a sales, marketing, medical affairs and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any products for which we may obtain marketing approval and intend to commercialize on our own or jointly with third parties;

•maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;

•invest in or in-license other technologies or product candidates; and

•continue to build out our organization to engage in such activities.

To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtaining marketing approval for product candidates, manufacturing, marketing, and selling products for which we may obtain marketing approval and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in any or all of these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenue that is significant enough to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business, or continue our operations.

We will require substantial additional capital to fund our operations. If we are unable to raise such capital when needed, or on acceptable terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce and/or eliminate one or more of our research and drug development programs, future commercialization efforts or other operations.

Developing biopharmaceutical products, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, is a very time-consuming, expensive, and uncertain process that takes years to complete. Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we conduct our planned clinical trials of bexotegrast and any future product candidates that we may develop, seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates and to launch and commercialize any products for which we receive regulatory approval. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in order to maintain our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate one or more of our research and drug development programs or future commercialization efforts.

As of September 30, 2023, we had approximately $523.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund our anticipated operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2026. However, our future capital requirements and the period for which our existing resources will support our operations may vary

significantly from what we expect, and we will in any event require additional capital in order to complete clinical development of any of our current programs. Our monthly spending levels will vary based on new and ongoing development and corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development, marketing, and commercialization activities. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

•the initiation, progress, timing, costs and results of preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates;

•the clinical development plans we establish for these product candidates;

•the timelines of our clinical trials and the overall costs to conduct and complete the clinical trials, including any increased costs due to disruptions caused by marketplace conditions, including the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or other geopolitical conditions;

•the cost and capital commitments required for developing manufacturing processes for our product candidates and manufacturing our product candidates at clinical and commercial scales;

•the number and characteristics of product candidates that we develop;

•the outcome, timing and cost of meeting regulatory requirements established by the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities;

•whether we are able to enter into future collaboration agreements and the terms of any such agreements;

•the ability to and timing of achieving a favorable pricing and reimbursement decision by the pricing authorities in the markets of interest;

•the ability to secure a position recommendation following the health technology assessment by the health technology bodies in the relevant market;

•the cost of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing our patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

•the cost of defending intellectual property disputes, including patent infringement actions brought by third parties against us or our product candidates;

•the effect of competing technological and market developments;

•the cost and timing of completion of commercial-scale outsourced manufacturing activities; and

We have borrowed and in the future may borrow additional capital from institutional and commercial banking sources to fund future growth, including pursuant to our Oxford Loan Agreement, or potentially pursuant to new arrangements with different lenders. In addition, we expect to continue to opportunistically seek access to the equity capital markets to support our development efforts and operations. However, we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Until we can generate sufficient revenue to finance our cash requirements, which we may never do, we expect to finance our future cash needs through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements and other marketing or distribution arrangements. If we raise additional funds through public or private equity offerings, the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Further, to the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into common stock, your ownership interest will be diluted. In addition, any debt financing may subject us to fixed payment obligations and covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, or declaring dividends. If we raise additional capital through marketing and distribution arrangements or other collaborations, strategic alliances, or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish certain valuable intellectual property or other rights to our product candidates, technologies, future revenue streams or research programs or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. We also may be required to seek collaborators for any of our product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to product candidates or technologies that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves. Market volatility resulting from challenging financial markets factors, including the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, could also adversely impact our ability to access capital as and when needed. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our product candidates or one or more of our other

research and development initiatives. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause the price of our common stock to decline.

Covenants and other provisions in the Oxford Loan Agreement restrict our business and operations in many ways, and if we do not effectively manage our covenants, our financial conditions and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, our operations may not provide sufficient cash to meet the repayment obligations of our debt incurred under the Oxford Loan Agreement.

Pursuant to the Oxford Loan Agreement, Oxford has been granted a security interest in substantially all of our assets, excluding intellectual property (but including the right to payments and proceeds of intellectual property), and a negative pledge on substantially all of our intellectual property, subject to customary exceptions. If an event of default occurs under the Oxford Loan Agreement, Oxford may foreclose on its security interest and liquidate some or all of these assets, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In the event of a default in connection with our bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation, or reorganization, Oxford would have a prior right to substantially all of our assets to the exclusion of our general unsecured creditors. Only after satisfying the claims of Oxford and any unsecured creditors would any amount be available for our equity holders.

The pledge of these assets and other restrictions imposed in the Oxford Loan Agreement may limit our flexibility in raising capital for other purposes. Because substantially all of our assets are pledged to secure the Oxford Loan Agreement obligations, our ability to incur additional indebtedness or to sell or dispose of assets to raise capital may be impaired, which could have an adverse effect on our financial flexibility.

In addition, if we are unable to comply with certain financial and operating restrictions in the Oxford Loan Agreement, we may be limited in our business activities and access to credit or may default under the Oxford Loan Agreement. Provisions in the Oxford Loan Agreement impose restrictions or require prior approval on our ability, and the ability of certain of our subsidiaries to, among other things:

•Incur additional debt;

•Make certain investments and acquisitions;

•Guarantee the indebtedness of others or our subsidiaries;

•Create liens or encumbrances;

•Engage in new lines of business;

•Enter into transactions with affiliates;

•Pay cash dividends and make distributions;

•Redeem or repurchase capital shares;

•Sell, lease or transfer certain parts of our business or property, including equity interests of our subsidiaries;

•Prepay other indebtedness; and

•Acquire new companies and merge or consolidate.

The Oxford Loan Agreement also contains other customary covenants. We may not be able to comply with these covenants in the future. Our failure to comply with these covenants may result in the declaration of an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, may result in the acceleration of the maturity of indebtedness outstanding under the Oxford Loan Agreement and would require us to pay all amounts outstanding. If the maturity of our indebtedness is accelerated, we may not have sufficient funds then available for repayment or we may not have the ability to borrow or obtain sufficient funds to replace the accelerated indebtedness on terms acceptable to us or at all. Our failure to repay our obligations under the Oxford Loan Agreement would result in Oxford foreclosing on all or a portion of our assets, which could force us to curtail or cease our operations.

The amount of our future losses is uncertain and our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly or may fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, each of which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including the following:

•the timing and success or failure of clinical trials for our product candidates or competing product candidates, or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners;

•our ability to successfully recruit and retain subjects for clinical trials, and any delays caused by difficulties in such efforts;

•our ability to obtain marketing approval for our product candidates, and the timing and scope of any such approvals we may receive;

•the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research and development activities relating to our product candidates, which may change from time to time;

•the cost of manufacturing our product candidates, which may vary depending on the difficulty of manufacture, quantity of production and the terms of our agreements with manufacturers;

•our ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel;

•expenditures that we will or may incur to develop additional product candidates;

•the level of demand for our product candidates should they receive approval, which may vary significantly;

•the risk/benefit profile, cost and reimbursement policies with respect to our product candidates, if approved, and existing and potential future therapeutics that compete with our product candidates;

•general market conditions or extraordinary external events, such as recessions or the the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as COVID-19 pandemic;

•the changing and volatile U.S. and global economic and political environments; and

•future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies.

The cumulative effects of these factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any forecasts we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.

Risks Related to Research and Development and the Biopharmaceutical Industry

We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our prospects and likelihood of success.

We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales to date. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, establishing our intellectual property portfolio and performing research and development of our product candidates and our technology related to transforming growth factor beta, or TGF-β, signaling and integrin biology, medicinal chemistry, translational screening technologies, and clinical insights to discover and develop novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis. Our approach to the discovery and development of product candidates is unproven, and we do not know whether we will be able to develop any products of commercial value. We have not yet demonstrated the ability to progress any product candidate through clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval, manufacture a commercial scale product, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. In addition, as a business with a limited operating history, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors and risks frequently experienced by early-stage biopharmaceutical companies in rapidly evolving fields. Consequently, we expect our operating results to continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, and predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing drug products.

Our business is highly dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, bexotegrast and any other product candidates that we advance into the clinic. Our product candidates will require significant additional development before we may be able to seek regulatory approval for and launch a product commercially.

We currently have no products that are approved for commercial sale and may never be able to develop marketable products. We are early in our clinical development for bexotegrast. If bexotegrast or any of our other product candidates encounter safety or efficacy problems, development delays, regulatory issues or other problems, our development plans and business would be significantly harmed. We have completed several Phase 1 and Phase 2a trials of bexotegrast in IPF and are currently conducting a Phase 2a trial in PSC. We previously collaborated with Novartis to develop PLN-1474 for advanced liver fibrosis associated with NASH and have completed a Phase 1a SAD/MAD study evaluating PLN-1474 in healthy volunteers. As part of a broad strategic realignment, Novartis discontinued clinical development in NASH and, as a result,

discontinued development of PLN-1474. In February 2023, Novartis issued a termination notice for the collaboration and license agreement, and effective upon the termination, returned global rights to Pliant for PLN-1474 and we may pursue other collaborations to further clinical development of PLN-1474. All of the risks and uncertainties that apply to bexotegrast or any candidates that we develop independently apply equally to those candidates we may develop in collaboration with third parties. See “Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties.”

Before we can generate any revenue from sales of our lead product candidate, bexotegrast, or any of our other product candidates, we must undergo additional preclinical and clinical development, regulatory review, and approval in one or more jurisdictions. In addition, if one or more of our product candidates are approved, we must ensure access to sufficient commercial manufacturing capacity and conduct significant marketing efforts in connection with any commercial launch. These efforts will require substantial investment, and we may not have the financial resources to continue development of our product candidates.

We may experience setbacks that could delay or prevent regulatory approval of, or the extent of regulatory protection or our ability to commercialize, our product candidates, including:

•negative or inconclusive results from our preclinical studies or clinical trials or the clinical trials of others for product candidates similar to ours, leading to a decision or requirement to conduct additional preclinical testing or clinical trials or abandon a program;

•product-related side effects experienced by subjects in our clinical trials or by individuals using drugs or therapeutics similar to our product candidates;

•delays in submitting investigational new drug (IND) applications or comparable foreign applications or delays or failure in obtaining the necessary approvals from regulators to commence a clinical trial, or a suspension or termination of a clinical trial once commenced;

•conditions imposed by the FDA or comparable foreign authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials;

•delays in enrolling subjects in clinical trials, including due to the effects of health epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;

•high drop-out rates of subjects from clinical trials;

•inadequate supply or quality of product candidates or other materials necessary for the conduct of our clinical trials;

•challenges manufacturing our product candidates to regulatory requirements in a cost effective manner;

•greater than anticipated clinical trial costs;

•inability to compete with other therapies;

•failure to secure or maintain orphan designation in some jurisdictions;

•poor efficacy of our product candidates during clinical trials;

•unfavorable FDA or other regulatory agency inspection and review of a clinical trial site;

•failure of our third-party contractors or investigators to comply with regulatory requirements or otherwise meet their contractual obligations in a timely manner, or at all;

•delays and changes in regulatory requirements, policy and guidelines, including the imposition of additional regulatory oversight around clinical testing generally or with respect to our technology in particular; or

•varying interpretations of data by the FDA and similar foreign regulatory agencies.

We do not have complete control over many of these factors, including certain aspects of clinical development and the regulatory submission process, potential threats to our intellectual property rights and our manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sales efforts or that of any future collaborator.

Our approach to drug discovery and development in the area of fibrotic diseases, with an initial focus on tissue-specific integrin modulation and TGF-β signaling inhibition, is unproven and may not result in marketable products.

Our approach is designed to discover and develop targeted treatments for fibrosis with an initial focus on the antagonism of tissue-specific TGF-β signaling through the inhibition of integrins known to mediate the release of activated TGF-β in fibrotic tissue. However, although multiple studies are currently underway, to date, this mechanism has not been definitively proven to successfully treat fibrosis. Targeting integrins to treat fibrosis is a novel approach in a rapidly developing field, and there can be no assurance that we will not experience currently unknown problems or delays in developing our product

candidates, that such problems or delays will not result in unanticipated costs, or that any such development problems can be solved. We have primarily tested our lead product candidate, bexotegrast, in healthy volunteers. Therefore, we may ultimately discover that our approach and any product candidates resulting therefrom do not possess properties required for therapeutic effectiveness. As a result, we may never succeed in developing a marketable product.

In addition, while we have developed an extensive panel of cell assays and precision cut tissue assays and have utilized animal models to uncover biological pathways, understood gene expression changes and optimized the potency and selectivity of our potential product candidates, there can be no assurance that our technology will yield their intended benefits. While we believe our assays represent a differentiator in our approach to drug development, our approach has not yet been clinically proven to yield results. Our practice of evaluating our product candidates in live human fibrotic tissue samples before advancing them into the clinic is intended to serve as a bridge between animal models and clinical proof-of-concept. However, there can be no assurance that positive results observed from preclinical animal testing and human fibrotic tissue models will be replicated when a program is advanced into clinical development. In addition, our practice of utilizing live human fibrotic tissue as part of our development efforts may become more widespread in the future, and this approach may be adopted and replicated by others, including our competitors.

Studies involving human tissue samples may also be subject to institutional and government human subject privacy policies that may vary by territory. We or our partners who provide us with human tissue samples or conduct tissue and/or animal studies on our behalf, may be found to be in violation of one or more of these regulations or policies and may be subject to closure, censure or other penalties. In some cases, these penalties could materially impact the performance, availability, or validity of studies conducted by us or on our behalf. Even in the absence of violations resulting in penalties, regulatory and other authorities may refuse to authorize the conduct or to accept the results of studies for regulatory or ethical reasons.

Clinical development involves a lengthy, complex, and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome.

To obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidates, we must demonstrate through extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials that our product candidates are safe and effective in humans. Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. In particular, the general approach for FDA approval of a new drug is dispositive data from two well-controlled, Phase 3 clinical trials of the relevant drug in the relevant patient population. Phase 3 clinical trials typically involve hundreds of patients, have significant costs and take years to complete. A product candidate can fail at any stage of testing, even after observing promising signals of activity in earlier preclinical studies or clinical trials. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. In addition, initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained when such trials are completed. There is typically an extremely high rate of attrition from the failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products and there can be no assurance that any of our future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of bexotegrast or any of our other product candidates. Product candidates that appear promising in the early phases of development may fail to reach the market for several reasons, including:

•preclinical studies or clinical trials may show the product candidates to be less effective than expected (e.g., a clinical trial could fail to meet its primary endpoint(s)) or to have unacceptable side effects or toxicities;

•failure to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful;

•failure to receive the necessary regulatory approvals;

•development of competing products in the same disease state;

•manufacturing costs, formulation issues, pricing or reimbursement issues, or other factors that make a product candidate uneconomical; and

•the proprietary rights of others and their competing products and technologies that may prevent one of our product candidates from being commercialized.

In addition, differences in trial design between early-stage clinical trials and later-stage clinical trials make it difficult to extrapolate the results of earlier clinical trials to later clinical trials. Further, as we rely on novel technologies including sophisticated imaging technologies to generate data relating to our clinical endpoints, there is an increased risk that we may not properly measure, analyze or interpret this data. Moreover, clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. Additionally, some of our trials are open-label studies, where

both the patient and investigator know whether the patient is receiving the investigational product candidate or either an existing approved drug or placebo. Most typically, open-label clinical trials test only the investigational product candidate and sometimes do so at different dose levels. Open-label clinical trials are subject to various limitations that may exaggerate any therapeutic effect as patients in open-label clinical trials are aware when they are receiving treatment. In addition, open-label clinical trials may be subject to an “investigator bias” where those assessing and reviewing the physiological outcomes of the clinical trials are aware of which patients have received treatment and may interpret the information of the treated group more favorably given this knowledge. Therefore, it is possible that positive results observed in open-label trials will not be replicated in later placebo-controlled trials.

In addition, the standards that the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities use when regulating us require judgment and can change, which makes it difficult to predict with certainty how they will be applied. Although we are initially focusing our efforts on development of small molecule drug products, we are also considering the development of biological products, including a potential candidate for muscular dystrophies, which could make us subject to additional regulatory requirements. Any analysis we perform of data from preclinical and clinical activities is subject to confirmation and interpretation by regulatory authorities, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. We may also encounter unexpected delays or increased costs due to new government regulations. Examples of such regulations include future legislation or administrative action, or changes in FDA policy during the period of product development and FDA regulatory review. It is impossible to predict whether legislative changes will be enacted, or whether FDA or foreign regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes, if any, may be. The FDA may also require a panel of experts, referred to as an Advisory Committee, to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support approval. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain approval of any product candidates that we develop.

If we seek to conduct clinical trials in foreign countries or pursue marketing approvals in foreign jurisdictions, we must comply with numerous foreign regulatory requirements governing, among other things, the conduct of clinical trials, manufacturing and marketing authorization, pricing and third-party reimbursement. The foreign regulatory approval process varies among countries and may include all of the risks associated with FDA approval described above as well as risks attributable to the satisfaction of local regulations in foreign jurisdictions. Moreover, the time required to obtain approval may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States and vice versa.

Successful completion of clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting a marketing application to the FDA and similar marketing applications to comparable foreign regulatory authorities, for each product candidate and, consequently, the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of any product candidates. We may experience negative or inconclusive results, which may result in our deciding, or our being required by regulators, to conduct additional clinical studies or trials or abandon some or all of our product development programs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of bexotegrast or any other product candidates.

We may experience delays in initiating or completing clinical trials. We also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any future clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize bexotegrast or any other product candidates, including:

•regulators or institutional review boards, or IRBs, or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

•the FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design, including with respect to dosing levels administered in our planned clinical trials, which may delay or prevent us from initiating our clinical trials with our originally intended trial design;

•we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

•the number of subjects required for clinical trials of any product candidates may be larger than we anticipate or subjects may drop out of these clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;

•our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all, or may deviate from the clinical trial protocol or drop out of the trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;

•due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, delays and interruptions to our preclinical studies and clinical trials, we may experience delays or interruptions to our manufacturing supply chain, or we could suffer delays in reaching, or we may fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with third-party service providers on whom we rely;

•additional delays and interruptions to our clinical trials could extend the duration of the trials and increase the overall costs to finish the trials as our fixed costs are not substantially reduced during delays;

•we may elect to, or regulators, IRBs, Data Safety Monitoring Boards, or DSMBs, or ethics committees may require that we or our investigators suspend or terminate clinical research or trials for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;

•we may not have the financial resources available to begin and complete the planned trials, or the cost of clinical trials of any product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;

•the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be insufficient or inadequate to initiate or complete a given clinical trial; and

•the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to submit additional data such as long-term toxicology studies, or impose other requirements before permitting us to initiate a clinical trial.

Our product development costs will increase if we experience additional delays in clinical testing or in obtaining marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. If we do not achieve our product development goals in the timeframes we announce and expect, the approval and commercialization of our product candidates may be delayed or prevented entirely. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations significantly.

Our ongoing and future clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events or unexpected drug-drug interactions not seen in our preclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could delay or prevent regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

We completed our Phase 1a clinical trial of our lead product candidate bexotegrast in healthy volunteers, and, with the exception of a number of reported minor adverse events, the product candidate was observed to be generally well-tolerated across all doses in 71 trial participants. In addition, we announced positive interim data from our first Phase 2a INTEGRIS-IPF trial in July 2022, January 2023 and May 2023 in which bexotegrast was observed to be well-tolerated over a treatment period of at least 12 weeks, and up to 40 weeks, in the 89 patients treated with bexotegrast. In September 2023, we announced positive interim data from INTEGRIS-PSC, a Phase 2a clinical trial of bexotegrast in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis and suspected moderate to severe liver fibrosis. The trial met its primary and secondary endpoints demonstrating that bexotegrast was well tolerated over a 12-week treatment period and its plasma concentrations increased with dose. However, if significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our ongoing or future clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to our clinical trials, patients may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts altogether. In addition, in our ongoing Phase 2a clinical trials, we are evaluating bexotegrast administered with approved IPF agents. We have completed a Phase 1a study evaluating one-way interaction of bexotegrast on nintedanib or pirfenidone, concluding that clinical safety and pharmacokinetic data indicate that no dose adjustments are needed for nintedanib or pirfenidone when combined with bexotegrast. However, we may encounter unexpected drug-drug interactions in our planned trials, and may be required to further test these candidates, including additional drug-drug interaction studies, which may be expensive, time-consuming and result in delays to our programs.

Some potential therapeutics developed in the biopharmaceutical industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product candidate from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies.

If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons. The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:

•the patient eligibility and exclusion criteria defined in the protocol;

•the size of the patient population required for analysis of the trial’s primary endpoints and the process for identifying patients;

•the willingness or availability (including legality under any future or reinstated COVID-19 policies) of patients to participate in our trials (including due to fears of contracting COVID-19 or other diseases);

•the proximity of patients to trial sites;

•the design of the trial;

•our ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;

•clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages and risks of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new products that may be approved for the indications we are investigating;

•the availability of competing commercially available therapies and other competing product candidates’ clinical trials;

•our ability to obtain and maintain patient informed consents; and

•the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will drop out of the trials before completion.

For example, we are initially developing bexotegrast for the treatment of IPF and PSC, each of which is an orphan indication. In the United States, IPF is estimated to affect approximately 140,000 patients, while PSC is estimated to affect approximately 30,000 to 45,000 patients. As a result, we may encounter difficulties enrolling subjects in our clinical trials of bexotegrast due, in part, to the small size of these patient populations. Our clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect to conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in such clinical trial site.

Further, timely enrollment in clinical trials is reliant on clinical trial sites which may be adversely affected by global health matters, including, among other things, pandemics. For example, our clinical trial sites have been affected by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Commencement of enrollment of our clinical trials of bexotegrast in IPF and PSC was delayed. While these trials have resumed patient enrollment, and in some cases completed enrollment, we experienced slower than expected enrollment due to COVID-19. Also, while the Phase 1 trial of PLN-1474 has completed, this trial experienced delays due to COVID-19. In addition, after enrollment in these trials, if patients contract illnesses during participation in our trials or are subject to isolation or shelter-in-place restrictions to combat future pandemics, including a resurgence of COVID-19, this may cause them to drop out of our trials, miss scheduled doses or follow-up visits or otherwise fail to follow trial protocols. If patients are unable to follow the trial protocols or if our trial results are otherwise disputed due to the effects of the a pandemic or actions taken to mitigate its spread, the integrity of data from our trials may be compromised or not accepted by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which would represent a significant setback for the applicable program.

Additionally, the FDA may modify or enhance trial requirements, which may affect enrollment. For example, in August 2023, the FDA published a guidance document, “Informed Consent, Guidance for IRBs, Clinical Investigators, and Sponsors,” which supersedes past guidance and finalizes draft guidance on informed consent. The FDA’s new guidance presents evolving requirements for informed consent which may effect recruitment and retention of patients in clinical trials. Effects on recruitment and retention of patients may hinder or delay a clinical trial and could cause a significant setback to an applicable program.

The design or execution of our ongoing and future clinical trials may not support marketing approval.

The design or execution of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support marketing approval, and flaws in the design or execution of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We recently completed two Phase 2a trials of bexotegrast in IPF. In the first of these trials, the study was designed to enroll IPF patients and utilize a positron emission tomography, or PET, ligand to measure αvß6 target engagement by bexotegrast in the lungs post-treatment. The second trial was a double-blind placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of bexotegrast in IPF patients for up to 48 weeks at doses of up to 320 mg. It is possible that we may need to amend our clinical trials, which would require us to resubmit our clinical trial protocols to competent authorities and ethics committees for reexamination, and may impact the costs, timing, or successful completion of such clinical trial. In addition, we may desire to test bexotegrast at doses exceeding those evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1a trial and may not be able to do so.

Additionally, in some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different trials with the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including differences in trial protocols, size and type of the patient

populations, variable adherence to the dosing regimen or other protocol requirements and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. We do not know whether any clinical trials we conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety to obtain marketing approval to market our product candidates.

Further, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process and in determining when or whether marketing approval will be obtained for any of our product candidates. Our product candidates may not be approved even if they achieve their primary endpoints in future Phase 3 clinical trials or registrational trials. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our trial designs and our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials. Further, requirements regarding clinical trial data may evolve. In June 2023, the FDA published a draft guidance, E6(R3) Good Clinical Practice (GCP), which seeks to unify standards for clinical trial data for ICH member countries and regions. Changes to data requirements may cause the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to disagree with data from preclinical studies or clinical trials, and may require further studies.

In addition, any of these regulatory authorities may change requirements for the approval of a product candidate even after reviewing and providing comments or advice on a protocol for a pivotal Phase 3 or registrational clinical trial. In addition, any of these regulatory authorities may also approve a product candidate for fewer or more limited indications than we request or may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may not approve the labeling claims that we believe would be necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of our product candidates, if approved.

Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of our future clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our product candidates.

Although we have received U.S. orphan drug designation for bexotegrast for IPF and PSC indications and EEA orphan drug designation for bexotegrast for IPF and for PSC we may be unable to obtain and maintain orphan drug designation for our other product candidates and, even if we obtain such designation, we may not be able to realize the benefits of such designation, including potential marketing exclusivity of our product candidates, if approved.

Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and other major markets, may designate drugs intended to treat conditions or diseases affecting relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, may designate a product candidate as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as having a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug will be recovered from sales in the United States. In order to obtain orphan designation in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK,, the product must fulfill certain challenging criteria. Under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) 141/2000, a medicinal product may be designated as an orphan medicinal product if it meets the following criteria: (1) such product is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition; (2) either the prevalence of such condition must not be more than five in 10,000 persons in the EU when the application is made, or without the benefits derived from orphan status, it must be unlikely that the marketing of the medicine would generate sufficient return in the EU to justify the investment needed for its development; and (3) there exists no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of such condition authorized for marketing in the EU or if such a method exists, the product will be of significant benefit to those affected by the condition, as defined in Regulation (EC) 847/2000. In the EEA, the grant of the orphan designation does not mean that the product will be granted orphan status at the time it is assessed in parallel with the application for a marketing authorization. The authorities reassess then whether the product still fulfills the criteria for orphan status.

Although we have received U.S. orphan drug designation for bexotegrast for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, and primary sclerosing cholangitis, PSC, and EEA orphan drug designation for bexotegrast for IPF and for PSC, the designation of any of our product candidates as an orphan drug does not mean that any regulatory agency will accelerate regulatory review of, or ultimately approve, that product candidate, nor does it limit the ability of any regulatory agency to grant orphan drug designation to product candidates of other companies that treat the same indications as our product candidates.

Generally, if a product candidate with an orphan drug designation receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities from approving another marketing application for a product that constitutes a similar medicinal product treating the same indication for that marketing exclusivity period, except in limited circumstances. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in the EEA. The ten-year period of market exclusivity in the EEA can be extended by a further two years if the product qualifies for a pediatric extension, but can be reduced to a period of six years if the orphan designation criteria are no longer met after the fifth year. Orphan drug exclusivity may be revoked if any regulatory agency determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. On April 26, 2023, the European

Commission adopted a proposal for a new Directive and a new Regulation. If made into law, this proposal will revise and replace the existing general pharmaceutical legislation and may make it more difficult to obtain orphan designation in the EEA.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product candidate, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product candidate from competition because different drugs with different active moieties can be approved for the same condition in the United States or EEA. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA or European Medicines Agency, or EMA, as applicable, may subsequently approve another drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the latter drug is not a similar medicinal product or is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care.

In addition, Congress is considering updates to the orphan drug provisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, in response to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Any changes to the orphan drug provisions could change our opportunities for, or likelihood of success in obtaining, orphan drug exclusivity and would materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

A Fast Track designation by the FDA, even if granted for other current or future product candidates, may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.

We may seek Fast Track designation for one or more of our future product candidates. In April 2022, bexotegrast received Fast Track designation for the treatment of IPF. If a drug product is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and it demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for such a disease or condition, the drug sponsor may apply for FDA Fast Track designation for a particular indication. We may seek Fast Track designation for our product candidates, but there is no assurance that the FDA will grant this designation to any of our proposed product candidates. Marketing applications submitted by sponsors of products in Fast Track development may qualify for priority review under the policies and procedures offered by the FDA, but the Fast Track designation does not assure any such qualification or ultimate marketing licensure by the FDA. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant Fast Track designation, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation, there can be no assurance that the FDA would decide to grant it. Even if we do receive Fast Track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or licensure compared to conventional FDA procedures or pathways and receiving a Fast Track designation does not provide assurance of ultimate FDA licensure. In addition, the FDA may withdraw Fast Track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. In addition, the FDA may withdraw any Fast Track designation at any time.

Changes in methods of product candidate manufacturing or formulation may result in additional costs or delay.

As product candidates progress through preclinical to late-stage clinical trials to marketing approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods and formulation, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize yield, manufacturing batch size, minimize costs and achieve consistent quality and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives. Any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials conducted with the altered materials. This could delay completion of clinical trials, require the conduct of bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates and jeopardize our ability to commercialize our product candidates and generate revenue.

In addition, there are risks associated with large scale manufacturing for clinical trials or commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, compliance with good manufacturing practices, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. Even if we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that our manufacturers will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential commercial launch of the product or to meet potential future demand. Additionally, if we advance a biological candidate into IND-enabling studies, the manufacturing processes for biological products is more complex and expensive than with small molecule products and additional manufacturing suppliers may be needed to manufacture clinical supplies for these programs. If our manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercialization, our development and commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We may not be successful in our efforts to identify or discover additional product candidates in the future.

Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons, including:

•our inability to design such product candidates with the pharmacological properties that we desire or attractive pharmacokinetics; or

•potential product candidates may, on further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be medicines that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance.

Research programs to identify new product candidates require substantial technical, financial, and human resources. If we are unable to identify suitable compounds for preclinical and clinical development, we will not be able to obtain product revenue in future periods, which likely would result in significant harm to our financial position and adversely impact our stock price.

Due to our limited resources and access to capital, we must make decisions on the allocation of resources to certain programs and product candidates; these decisions may prove to be wrong and may adversely affect our business.

We have limited financial and human resources and intend to initially focus on research programs and product candidates for a limited set of indications. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. In addition, we seek to accelerate our development timelines, including by initiating certain clinical trials of our product candidates before earlier-stage studies have been completed. This approach may cause us to commit significant resources to prepare for and conduct later-stage trials for one or more product candidates that subsequently fail earlier-stage clinical testing. Therefore, our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities or expend resources on product candidates that are not viable.

There can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our product candidates or to develop suitable potential product candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential product candidates or other potential programs that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial financial or other liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of testing bexotegrast and any of our other product candidates in clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. For example, we may be sued if our product candidates cause or are perceived to cause injury or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical trials, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

•inability to bring a product candidate to the market;

•decreased demand for our products;

•injury to our reputation;

•withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials;

•initiation of investigations by regulators;

•fines, injunctions or criminal penalties;

•costs to defend the related litigation;

•diversion of management’s time and our resources;

•substantial monetary awards to trial participants;

•product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

•loss of revenue;

•exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;

•the inability to commercialize any product candidate, if approved; and

•decline in our share price.

Our inability to obtain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products we develop. We will need to obtain additional

insurance for clinical trials as bexotegrast continues clinical development and as additional product candidates enter the clinic. However, we may be unable to obtain, or may obtain on unfavorable terms, clinical trial insurance in amounts adequate to cover any liabilities from any of our clinical trials. Our insurance policies may also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We may have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. Even if our agreements with any future corporate collaborators entitle us to indemnification against losses, such indemnification may not be available or adequate should any claim arise.

We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing, or commercializing products before or more successfully than us.

The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. We may face competition with respect to any product candidates that we seek to develop or commercialize in the future from major biopharmaceutical companies, specialty biopharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology companies worldwide. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies, and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection, and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization.

There are a number of biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are currently pursuing the development of products for the treatment of fibrosis. Companies that we are aware of that are targeting the treatment of various fibrosis indications through inhibiting various parts of the TGF-β pathway include companies with significant financial resources such as AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Corbus Pharmaceutical, DiCE Therapeutics, Inc. (recently acquired by Eli Lilly and Company), Merck & Co., Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Morphic Therapeutics, Inc., Novartis AG, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.

Many of our current or potential competitors, either alone or with their strategic partners, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and marketing approved products than we do.

Mergers and acquisitions in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, more convenient or less expensive than any products that we may develop. Furthermore, products currently approved for other indications could be discovered to be effective treatments of fibrosis as well, which could give such products significant regulatory and market timing advantages over bexotegrast or other product candidates that we may identify. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Additionally, products or technologies developed by our competitors may render our potential product candidates uneconomical or obsolete and we may not be successful in marketing any product candidates we may develop against competitors. The availability of competitive products could limit the demand, and the price we are able to charge, for any products that we may develop and commercialize.

Risks Related to Marketing, Reimbursement, Healthcare Regulations and Ongoing Regulatory Compliance

Even if a product candidate we develop receives marketing approval, it may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

Even if bexotegrast or any other product candidate we develop receives marketing approval, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients and third-party payors. In addition, the availability of coverage by third-party payors may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures designed to reduce the cost of health care. If the product candidates we develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable.

The degree of market acceptance of any product candidate, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

•efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments;

•the ability to offer our products, if approved, for sale at competitive prices;

•convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;

•the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

•the recommendations with respect to our product candidates in guidelines published by various scientific organizations applicable to us and our product candidates;

•positive HTA assessment in jurisdictions where required;

•the strength of marketing and distribution support;

•the ability to obtain sufficient third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement and a positive recommendation by health technology bodies; and

•the prevalence and severity of any side effects.

If government and other third-party payors do not provide coverage and adequate reimbursement levels for any products we commercialize, market acceptance and commercial success would be reduced.

Coverage and reimbursement may be limited or unavailable in certain market segments for our product candidates, if approved, which could make it difficult for us to sell any product candidates profitably.

Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any products for which we may obtain regulatory approval. In the United States, sales of any products for which we may receive regulatory marketing approval will depend, in part, on the availability of coverage and adequacy of reimbursement from third-party payors. Third-party payors include government authorities such as Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the Veterans Administration, manag

PLIANT THERAPEUTICS, INC. [PLRX] Filings
10-Q	[2023-11-09]
10-Q	[2023-08-09]
10-Q	[2023-05-09]
10-K	[2023-03-09]
10-Q	[2022-11-08]
10-Q	[2022-08-08]
10-Q	[2022-05-09]
10-K	[2022-03-01]
10-Q	[2021-11-09]
10-Q	[2021-08-09]
10-Q	[2021-05-10]
10-K	[2021-03-16]
10-Q	[2020-11-10]
10-Q	[2020-08-11]
S-1	[2020-05-11]