US-based fibrosis drug developer Pliant Therapeutics went public yesterday in a $144m initial public offering that represented an exit for Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The company increased the number of shares in the IPO from 6 million to 9 million shares and priced them at the top of the $14 to $16 range it set last week, while Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research bought $10m of stock in the offering.
The shares closed at $21.30 on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and are up to $24.03 at time of publication, giving Pliant a market cap of about $822m.
Pliant is working on small molecule treatments for a liver condition called fibrosis, and has allocated $90m of the IPO proceeds to its lead drug candidate, PLN-74809, which is being prepared for phase 2a clinical trials in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis.
A further $20m has been earmarked for early-stage development of candidates targeting cancer and muscular dystrophy. The company is also working with Novartis on PLN-1474, a potential treatment for fibrosis associated with liver disease non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Novartis led Pliant’s most recent round, a $100m series C in March this year that boosted its overall funding to $207m.
Redmile, Farallon Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management, Surveyor Capital, Logos Capital and existing investors Eventide Asset Management, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Schroder Adveq, Menlo Ventures, SCubed Capital and Agent Capital were also among the series C backers.
The company’s largest investor remains Third Rock Ventures, which seeded it in 2016 and which owns a 23.3% stake, diluted from 32.3%. The Novartis investment increased its stake from 6.2% to 6.3%, and Pliant’s other notable backers are Eventide (6.7%), Redmile and Cowen Healthcare Investments (5.6% each).
Joint book-running managers Citigroup, Cowen and Piper Sandler and lead manager Needham & Company have a 30-day option to acquire up to 1.35 million more shares, which would boost the size of the offering to more than $165m.
