New York, May 28, 2026, 19:07 EDT
Pliant Therapeutics Inc. moved up in late trading Thursday, last seen at $1.25, up roughly 1.2% from the previous close. Market cap hovered around $77 million. Volume was a bit over 210,000 shares.
The move came once the regular Nasdaq session closed. Nasdaq’s regular hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, then after-hours trading goes till 8 p.m. ET. After-hours is any trading after the main session, usually with less liquidity.
PLRX is in focus now because of the timing. Pliant will show a poster on Saturday, May 30, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. The company will share data from its Phase 1b FORTIFY trial of PLN-101095 in patients with immune-checkpoint-inhibitor-refractory solid tumors. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are cancer drugs that help the immune system attack tumors.
Pliant’s pipeline is now centered on PLN-101095. The biotech said first-quarter net loss dropped to $20.0 million from $56.2 million a year ago, the result of lower costs after stopping bexotegrast for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2025. As of March 31, Pliant held $172.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, enough to keep it running into the second half of 2028.
PLN-101095 is an oral drug aimed at blocking alpha-v beta-1 and alpha-v beta-8 integrins, proteins tied to cell signaling in the tumor microenvironment, the space around cancer cells. The National Cancer Institute says stopping these integrins might keep TGF-beta from turning on, a pathway that could help tumors get around checkpoint inhibitors.
Early data is limited but forms the main investor pitch. In April, Pliant said three confirmed responders had stayed on treatment for a median of 19 months, showing an average 89% drop in their baseline target tumors. Timothy A. Yap of MD Anderson, who presented the data, said the treatment could “reinvigorate the immune response to cancer.” GlobeNewswire
Pliant CEO Bernard Coulie has called the program a pipeline reset. In a May 11 update, Coulie said FORTIFY began “ahead of schedule” and the company was considering how to grow its clinical-stage pipeline. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.
The space stays active. Pliant is running a trial of PLN-101095 with pembrolizumab, Merck’s Keytruda. Other companies are also looking for ways to boost outcomes with Keytruda. Back in April, Reuters said Merck and other competitors had looked at Inhibrx Biosciences’ experimental cancer drug that works with Keytruda, another sign that drugmakers see value in new combination data for immuno-oncology.
Biotech traded higher Thursday. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF picked up roughly 1.1%. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF added around 1.4%. PLRX’s move lined up with the sector action.
There’s obvious risk here. This is early cancer data, a small program, and FORTIFY isn’t blinded—everyone knows who gets what. Pliant also has an at-the-market stock sale plan for as much as $50 million. That can bring in cash, but it could also dilute shareholders since it adds more shares.
Pliant Therapeutics (PLRX) is moving more on Saturday’s ASCO update than on current profit-and-loss numbers. Traders are looking for data on durability, safety, and the path forward for PLN-101095. PLRX is still a low-priced biotech, and the next data release may be more important than Thursday’s modest gain.
