The acute and chronic pain pipeline has entered a critical period, focusing on opioid painkillers Latigo (LTGO.US) to raise $100 million on NASDAQ

Zhitong Finance App learned that Latigo Biotherapeutics, a biotech company (Biotech) that has the conditions to enter phase III clinical trials and is committed to the efficient development of non-opioid oral treatments for acute and chronic pain, previously submitted IPO listing documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Friday to raise up to 100 million US dollars through an initial public offering.

Latigo Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology leader dedicated to developing non-opioid pain relievers targeting the Nav1.8 sodium ion channel. Its main drug candidate, LTG-001, is an oral NaV1.8 inhibitor used to treat moderate to severe acute pain, including post-operative pain. The drug recently published positive top-line data from an abdominoplasty trial involving 343 patients, reaching a major SPID48 endpoint compared to placebo.

Latigo BioTherapeutics' two most advanced drug candidates, LTG-001 and LTG-321, are both oral Nav1.8 inhibitors aimed at suppressing the transmission of pain signals. The company is also significantly advancing research and development of other Nav1.8 drug candidates to explore different formulations and delivery routes. In addition to Nav1.8, the company also plans to explore other ion channel targets involved in pain signaling in the future. These targets have complementary mechanisms of action and are expected to be used in multi-modal treatment to enhance analgesic effects or address various causes of pain.

The main candidate, LTG-001, is an oral NaV1.8 inhibitor designed to provide rapid, less opioid relief for the treatment of acute pain. LTG-001 is currently being developed as a potential treatment for moderate to severe acute pain, including post-operative pain, and is planned to be used for up to 30 days as needed. LTG-321 is the company's next-generation drug candidate to inhibit NaV1.8 and was initially used to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, beginning with osteoarthritis (OA).

The cutting-edge biotech company plans to conduct a placebo-controlled phase III valgus surgery trial and an open-label phase III safety trial in the second half of 2026, and is expected to announce the top-line clinical trial results in the second half of 2027. LTG-321 is the company's second NaV1.8 drug candidate. It is intended to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, and was the first to strongly switch from osteoarthritis indications. A major phase II proof of concept trial is currently being carried out, and the results are also expected to be announced in the second half of 2027. The company's earlier R&D pipeline also included the preclinical NaV1.8 inhibitor LTG-418, and other discovery phase projects targeting ion channels involved in pain transmission.

The company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California, and was founded in 2018 and plans to list on the US NASDAQ stock market under the stock code “LTGO.” Latigo Biotherapeutics secretly submitted a US IPO application on March 27, 2026. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Leerink Partners, and Guggenheim Securities acted as joint bookkeepers for the transaction.