Non-opioid painkiller developer Latigo (LTGO.US) wants to take advantage of the biotech IPO “Dongfeng”! The issue price is 18 US dollars/share, and the plan is to raise 346 million US dollars

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Latigo Biotherapeutics, a biotech company that focuses on developing non-opioid acute and chronic pain treatments and is now close to entering phase III clinical phase, has priced its US initial public offering (IPO) at $18 per share, which is at the high end of the previously announced issue price guidance range of $16-18. The company plans to issue 19.2 million shares (a 27% increase in final issuance scale compared to the original plan) to raise US$346 million. The company plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “LTGO.”

It is reported that Latigo is committed to developing non-opioid pain relievers targeting the Nav1.8 sodium ion channel. Its core drug candidate, LTG-001, is an oral NaV1.8 inhibitor mainly used to treat moderate to severe acute pain, including postoperative pain. This medication is designed to provide analgesic effects comparable to opioids while avoiding the risk of addiction. Nav1.8 is mainly expressed in peripheral pain sensory neurons. Its inhibitors do not act on the central nervous system and are therefore not addictive.

Previously released clinical data showed that in a randomized, placebo, and positive controlled phase 2b trial involving 343 patients after abdominoplasty, LTG-001 reached the primary endpoint SPID48 (time-weighted sum of 48-hour pain intensity differences), and all key secondary endpoints were highly statistically significant.

This is the highest analgesic effect reported by any drug in this pain model. 52% of patients in the high-dose LTG-001 group did not use opioid rescue drugs during treatment, compared to only 22% in the placebo group. In terms of effective time, LTG-001 has a median onset time of 51.7 minutes, which is faster than Vicodin.

In January 2025, Journavx (suzetrigine), a similar drug from Forte Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.US), obtained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), becoming the world's first approved Nav1.8 inhibitor, verifying the pharmacogenicity and regulatory path of this target. Latigo stated bluntly in its prospectus that Journavx is “limited by efficacy, slow efficacy, and contraindications,” and LTG-001 is targeting these shortcomings to differentiate itself.

Latigo plans to conduct a placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial of LTG-001 for patients undergoing bunion resection in the second half of 2026, and an open label phase III safety trial. The top-line results are expected to be announced in the second half of 2027.

Furthermore, Latigo's second NAV1.8 drug candidate, LTG-321, mainly targets chronic musculoskeletal pain. The initial indication is osteoarthritis. It is currently undergoing phase II proof-of-concept clinical trials, and the results are also expected to be announced in the second half of 2027. The company's early development pipeline also includes the preclinical NaV1.8 inhibitor LTG-418, and other early-stage R&D projects targeting ion channels involved in pain signaling.

Financially, Latigo is currently unprofitable. Net loss of US$61.2 million in 2024 increased to US$109.2 million in 2025, mainly due to R&D expenses (US$99.53 million in 2025) and general administrative expenses (US$10.86 million). The company previously stated that the net proceeds from this IPO, combined with existing resources, are sufficient to support its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements until the second half of 2028.

It is worth mentioning that Latigo chose to go public at this time during the golden window for biotech IPOs. According to the data, since 2026, the weighted average return on IPOs of US biotech and pharmaceutical companies has reached 55%, while the average return on the overall IPO market after excluding SPAC is a loss of 4.4%. The biotech sector outperformed the market by nearly 60 percentage points and became the biggest winner in the 2026 US stock IPO market.

According to the data, 18 biotech companies have completed IPOs in the first half of 2026, which is more than double the total for the full year of 2025 (8 companies). Since 2026, newly listed companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry have raised a total of US$5.4 billion, compared to only US$969.2 million in the same period last year.

The drivers of this wave of biotech IPOs include the continued rise in the Nasdaq Biotech Index, the relative stability of the FDA approval environment, and strong investor interest in platform-based companies with differentiated clinical data and clear market opportunities. Latigo's current listing is expected to take advantage of this “Dongfeng” and open up upward space for its stock price.