Suzetrigine

Dive Brief:Pain drug developer Latigo Biotherapeutics has joined a queue of more than half a dozen other biotechnology startups that announced this month plans to go public.Founded in 2018 by the venture capital firm Westlake BioPartners, Latigo is trying to make non-opioid drugs that work by blocking so-called sodium ion channels. The companys most advanced candidate, LTG-101, is on track to enter late-stage testing by the end of the year, where researchers will evaluate it as a treatment for moderate to severe acute pain.According to documents filed Friday, Latigo intends to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol LTGO. It has raised approximately $322 million since inception, and, as of March 31, had accumulated a deficit of $266 million. Latigo recorded a $109 net loss in 2025.Dive Insight:Latigo is the smaller of three companies leading the charge toward pain drugs that act on sodium channels. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly recently entered this research area through a potentially billion-dollar acquisition of SiteOne Therapeutics, which designed an experimental pill thats now in mid-stage testing for moderate to severe acute pain.Vertex Pharmaceuticals, meanwhile, already has an approved product in Journavx, which got cleared as an acute pain treatment in early 2025. Though sales have yet to seriously impress Wall Street they totaled almost $90 million during Journavxs first year on the market analysts see a massive opportunity should the drug expand into chronic pain. Vertex is working to do that, but results so far have been mixed.While Lilly and Vertex are deeply resourced, Latigo argues theres room for more players. And its not the only one to think so. When Novo Holdings,the controlling stakeholder of Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk,led a $100 million funding round for SiteOne,its investment thesis was this emerging segment of drug development is perhaps a horse race with two or three competitors, but one in which every horse can win, according to senior partner Ken Harrison.Latigo in March announced the closing of a $150 million Series B round led by asset manager Blue Owl Capital. Existing investors 5AM Ventures, Foresite Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated in fundraise, as did an array of new backers.Pain represents one of the largest and most pervasive therapeutic markets in the United States, driving an estimated 250 million prescriptions annually across acute and chronic settings, Latigo said in its initial public offering documents. [H]owever, a continued reliance on opioids has contributed to a persistent public health crisis with significant societal and economic costs.Latigo further intensifies a busy month for biotechnology IPOs. Six others have disclosed plans to go public, including cancer drugmaker BlossomHill Therapeutics, heart disease specialist Braveheart Bio and genetic medicine developer Scribe Therapeutics. '

Latigo Biotherapeutics is preparing to go public in order to bankroll the development of its clinical-stage pipeline of non-opioid pain management drugs. The Thousand Oaks, California-based biotech has yet to set out how many shares it plans to offer—or at what price—but listed its oral small-molecule Nav1.8 inhibitor LTG-001 at the top of its spending priorities. The plan is to use some of the IPO cash to take LTG-001 through a phase 3 study for patients undergoing bunion surgery on their toe, as well as another late-stage study enrolling a broader population of patients “across a variety of post-surgical and non-surgical settings,” according to Latigo’s July 17 Securities and Exchange Commission filing . Those studies are expected to kick off in the second half of this year, with topline readouts pencilled in for the second half of 2027. As well as those trials evaluating an twice-daily oral dose of LTG-001, Latigo said it is also developing an intravenous formulation that it hopes could be used in “hospital settings and enable transition from inpatient postoperative care to outpatient pain management.” Latigo is hoping that LTG-001 can follow in the slipstream of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journax, also known as suzetrigine, which last year became the first Nav1.8 inhibitor to secure FDA approval . While Latigo acknowledged in its filing that the regulatory nod for Journax was a “breakthrough in pain management,” the biotech claimed that Vertex’s drug is “limited by efficacy, slow onset and contraindications.” Behind LTG-001 is another Nav1.8 inhibitor dubbed LTG-321, which is currently undergoing a phase 2 study for osteoarthritis. Latigo is betting that LTG-321’s differentiated profile to LTG-001 means the potential musculoskeletal pain drug can be administered at a lower—and once-daily—dose, which could open up more possibilities for use in chronic-use settings. The biotech also namechecked a third Nav1.8 inhibitor called LTG-418 as another potential recipient of the IPO proceeds. The preclinical asset could again be delivered at lower doses, potentially offering the opportunity for gels, patches, eye drops, inhalers and injectables, the company suggested. Latigo hasn’t had problems enthusing investors about its pipeline. The company appeared on the scene in 2024 armed with a $135 million series A , and went on to secure a similarly impressive $150 million series B the following year. The biotech was founded and incubated by Westlake Village BioPartners, with the foundational science behind LTG-001 originating at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore. Westlake helped staff up the biotech by reaching out to Amgen employees who left as part of the pharma’s neuroscience divestment in late 2019. Latigo is now headed up by CEO Nima Farzan, who previously served as CEO of precision oncology company Kinnate Biopharma up to its acquisition by Xoma. Farzan currently oversees a Latigo workforce of 59 full-time employees, and a bank balance of $54.8 million as of the end of June. Latigo is just the latest in a growing number of biotechs queuing up to list on the Nasdaq, alongside the likes of Braveheart Bio , BlossomHill Therapeutics and Scribe Therapeutics. The warm market reception to biotech IPOs this year has already resulted in record-breaking listings from Kailera Therapeutics and Parabilis Medicines.