Latigo IPO: A "secret" biotech startup founded by former Amgen employees has gone public

Pre-market trading in shares of the small-cap biotech company Latigo Biotherapeutics has begun on the Freedom client trading platform. The company, whose founders include veterans of pharmaceutical giant Amgen, is developing potent painkillers that are non-opioid and therefore non-addictive. Later on August 7, Latigo shares will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LTGO.

The biotechnology company Latigo raised $345.6 million in its IPO on Nasdaq. It sold 19.2 million shares—20% more than originally planned—at $18 per share, which was the upper end of the previously announced price range. As a result, the company’s total market capitalization reached $1.08 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Leerink Partners, and Guggenheim Securities served as underwriters for the offering. They were granted a 30-day option to purchase up to 2.88 million shares of the company.

Latigo plans to allocate most of the proceeds from the transaction to conducting the third and final phase of clinical trials for its experimental drug for severe pain and its subsequent registration, according to the IPO prospectus filed with the regulator. The biotech company intends to use the remaining funds for other clinical programs and to replenish its working capital.

Latigo was founded in late 2020 by the venture capital fund Westlake Village BioPartners and former Amgen employees. Westlake had long been mulling the idea of creating a biotech company to develop painkillers, but couldn’t find any promising assets. And the pharmaceutical giant had just shut down its neuroscience program at that very time. That’s how Latigo came to be.

For its first four years, the company operated in “stealth mode.” It announced its exit from stealth mode in February 2024, along with news that it had raised $135 million from Westlake and a number of other investors.

Every year in the U.S., doctors write about 250 million prescriptions for painkillers, the company reports. It describes this segment of the pharmaceutical market as one of the largest in the country, one that is, however, heavily reliant on opioids. Opioids can be addictive, leading to an ongoing public health crisis with significant social and economic costs, according to the IPO filing.

Latigo’s research and development efforts are aimed at addressing this problem. The company has two main drug candidates. The first is LTG-001, which is intended to treat severe pain, including postoperative pain. On the market, it will compete with a drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which last year became the first in its class to receive regulatory approval. Although this was hailed as a “breakthrough in pain management,” Latigo believes that the Vertex drug is “limited by its efficacy, slow onset of action, and contraindications.”

The second drug candidate, LTG-321, is intended for the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain, such as that caused by osteoarthritis. Both drugs essentially block pain transmission.

The company’s operations have not yet generated revenue. It has been operating at a loss since its founding, according to the IPO prospectus. In 2025, Latigo’s net loss totaled $109.2 million; as of the end of last year, it had $69.4 million in cash and cash equivalents. This is insufficient to finance its operations for the next 12 months, the document states.

Latigo had no trouble attracting investors with its promising projects, according to Fierce Biotech. In 2024, it raised $135 million in a Series A funding round, and the following year, it raised an equally impressive $150 million in a Series B funding round, the article states.

The greatest risk associated with investing in Latigo relates to clinical trials: the company has no commercially successful products, and its drug candidates could fail, notes the investor portal Tickerspark. Another risk stems from the company’s need for capital, which could lead to dilution of shareholders’ stakes.

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Freedom clients will be able to trade Latigo Biotherapeutics shares before the main trading session opens. Trading will begin in the early pre-market session 2–3 hours before the U.S. markets open (from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Astana time). To participate, click on the LTGO ticker.