Latigo IPO: Non-opioid painkiller maker debuts on the Nasdaq

Early trading in shares of small-cap biotech Latigo Biotherapeutics has started on Freedom’s client trading platform. The company, whose founders include veterans of pharma giant Amgen, is developing powerful non-opioid painkillers that have lower risk of addiction. Latigo will debut during the Nasdaq regular session later on Friday under the ticker symbol LTGO.

Biotech Latigo raised $345.6 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq. It sold 19.2 million shares, 20% more than originally planned, at $18 apiece, the top end of the marketed range. The pricing gives the company a market value of $1.08 billion, Bloomberg estimates.

Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Leerink Partners, and Guggenheim Securities served as the underwriters. They received a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.88 million shares.

Latigo plans to use most of the offering proceeds to conduct a phase III trial of its experimental treatment for severe pain and subsequently pursue regulatory approval, according to the prospectus filed with the SEC. The biotech intends to spend the remaining proceeds on other clinical programs and working capital.

Venture capital firm Westlake Village BioPartners and former Amgen employees founded Latigo in late 2020. Westlake had long wanted to create a biotech to develop painkillers but had been unable to find compelling assets. At around the same time, the pharma giant shut down its neuroscience program. That is how Latigo was born.

The company spent its first four years in "stealth mode." It announced its emergence in February 2024, alongside news that it had raised $135 million from Westlake and several other investors.

Doctors in the U.S. write around 250 million prescriptions for painkillers every year, according to the company. It describes pain treatment as one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical markets, though one that remains heavily reliant on opioids. These drugs can cause addiction, contributing to a persistent public health crisis with significant societal and economic costs.

Latigo’s pipeline is intended to address this problem. The company has two main drug candidates. The first, LTG-001, is intended to treat severe pain, including postoperative pain. It will compete with a treatment from Vertex Pharmaceuticals that last year became the first drug in its class to receive regulatory approval. Although that represented a “breakthrough in pain management,” Latigo believes the Vertex drug is “limited by efficacy, slow onset, and contraindications.”

The second candidate, LTG-321, is intended to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, such as pain caused by osteoarthritis. Both drugs essentially block pain transmission.

The company does not yet generate revenue. It has incurred losses since its inception, according to the prospectus. Latigo reported a net loss of $109.2 million in 2025 and had $69.4 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of last year. That was insufficient to fund its operations for the following 12 months, the filing said.

Latigo has had little trouble winning over investors with its promising pipeline, industry site Fierce Biotech wrote. It raised $135 million in a series A financing in 2024, followed by an equally impressive $150 million series B financing the following year, according to the article.

The greatest risk of investing in Latigo is that the company has no commercially successful products, and its drug candidates could fail in trials, investor site TickerSpark reckons. Another risk stems from its need for capital, which could dilute existing stockholders.

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Freedom clients can trade Latigo Biotherapeutics shares before the start of the main U.S. session. Premarket trading will open 2-3 hours early, at 15:30-16:30 Astana time. To start trading, select the symbol LTGO on the Freedom platform.