Pliant Therapeutics said Sunday that an experimental pill significantly improved lung function in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, a deadly lung disease with few approved treatments.
Sunday’s data add to positive results Pliant released in July from patients who received smaller doses of its drug, bexotegrast. Although the new data come from just a couple dozen patients, they suggest that the higher dose had a greater effect on patients’ lung function, while also showing improvements on other measures for lung scarring.
Wall Street greeted the release with enthusiasm, sending Pliant shares up 75% in pre-market trading, from $22.51 to $39.44.
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