No­var­tis re­treat from NASH takes down $80M al­liance with Pli­ant Ther­a­peu­tics

Back in 2019, No­var­tis com­mit­ted $80 mil­lion to col­lab­o­rate with Pli­ant Ther­a­peu­tics on a pre­clin­i­cal can­di­date to treat liv­er fi­bro­sis as­so­ci­at­ed with non­al­co­holic steato­hep­ati­tis, or NASH. With­in two years, Pli­ant com­plet­ed a Phase I study of the drug and hand­ed it over to the phar­ma part­ner.

But No­var­tis is now giv­ing the drug back.

No­var­tis told Pli­ant that the move “part of its new strat­e­gy fo­cus­ing on a lim­it­ed num­ber of ther­a­peu­tic ar­eas, to di­vest clin­i­cal NASH as­sets and, as a re­sult, to dis­con­tin­ue the de­vel­op­ment of PLN-1474,” ac­cord­ing to a Feb. 17 SEC fil­ing from Pli­ant.

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