Pliant Therapeutics Appoints Suzanne Bruhn, Ph.D., To Board Of Directors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pliant Therapeutics, Inc., a company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing breakthrough treatments for fibrotic diseases, today announced the appointment of Suzanne Bruhn, Ph.D., to its board of directors.

“With a career spanning almost two decades of success in the development, commercialization and partnering of new therapies for patients, her breadth of experience will bring significant value to Pliant Therapeutics as we advance our pipeline of innovative fibrosis therapies.”

“Suzanne is a distinguished biopharmaceutical leader who brings a wealth of drug development expertise, and in particular, a deep knowledge of the fibrosis field,” said Bernard Coulie, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Pliant Therapeutics. “With a career spanning almost two decades of success in the development, commercialization and partnering of new therapies for patients, her breadth of experience will bring significant value to Pliant Therapeutics as we advance our pipeline of innovative fibrosis therapies.”

Dr. Bruhn most recently served as president and CEO of Promedior, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage immunotherapy company pioneering the development of targeted therapeutics to treat diseases involving fibrosis. There, she successfully negotiated an exclusive agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb for the right to acquire Promedior for a total deal potential of $1.25 billion. Prior to Promedior, Dr. Bruhn spent 13 years at Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT), a division of Shire PLC, where she held a series of positions of increasing responsibility before serving as senior vice president of strategic planning and program management. Currently, Dr. Bruhn serves on the board of directors of Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RPTP), a commercial-stage, biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for orphan diseases. Dr. Bruhn received a Bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.

“While significant medical and scientific progress has been made in recent years, there is still much work to be done for patients with fibrotic diseases,” said Dr. Bruhn. “Pliant Therapeutics truly embraces the challenge of developing new therapies for fibrosis, and I am looking forward to contributing my understanding of clinical development as the company advances its therapeutic pipeline.”

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics is an early-stage biotechnology company harnessing the therapeutic capabilities of integrin biology and TGF-ß signaling to develop breakthrough treatments for fibrotic diseases. By leveraging its powerful product engine, Pliant’s mission is to prevent or even reverse fibrosis, restoring organ function. The company also aims to build a patient registry for certain areas of fibrotic disease to both increase understanding of natural disease progression and fuel biomarker discovery for efficient clinical trial design. Founded by a group of seasoned experts in fibrosis biology and medicinal chemistry, Pliant Therapeutics was launched in 2016 by Third Rock Ventures and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. For more information, please visit www.pliantrx.com.