SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA — March 23, 2020 — Pliant Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for the treatment of serious fibrotic diseases, today announced that it has dosed the first cohort of healthy participants in a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of PLN-1474, a small molecule selective inhibitor of integrin αVβ1, currently being developed for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with liver fibrosis. The PLN-1474 development program is currently partnered with Novartis.
“PLN-1474 has demonstrated compelling preclinical evidence in models of NASH and liver fibrosis. We look forward to further investigating this compound, alongside Novartis, in this dose-escalating Phase 1 study.” said Éric Lefebvre, M.D., chief medical officer of Pliant Therapeutics. “We believe our differentiated approach of inhibiting the TGF-β activation pathway via integrin blockade in the liver holds the potential to provide clinically meaningful antifibrotic benefits to individuals living with NASH and clinically advanced liver fibrosis.”