BIOBRIEF
Latigo's mid stage non opioid LTG 001 cut post surgery pain and reduced the need for rescue oxycodone, a year after Vertex's Journavx won the first FDA approval of an oral non opioid for acute pain.
Latigo Biotherapeutics reported that its experimental non-opioid LTG-001, a Nav1.8 sodium-channel inhibitor in the same class as Vertex's approved Journavx, cut post-surgery pain in a 343-patient Phase 2 trial of post-abdominoplasty patients. It is the first credible second entrant in the year since Journavx became the first oral non-opioid approved for moderate-to-severe acute pain.
In the four-arm study, both LTG-001 doses beat placebo on the primary 48-hour pain endpoint (time-weighted SPID0-48 on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale). The high-dose arm was also significantly less likely than placebo to need rescue oxycodone. An opioid-combo arm (acetaminophen plus hydrocodone) served as an active reference, not a direct Journavx comparison.
Adverse events tracked with class expectations: high-dose patients reported fever at 7% versus 2% on placebo and lightheadedness at 6% versus 1%. Overall AE rates were higher in the placebo arm than in either treatment arm.
The FDA has already granted LTG-001 Fast Track designation, and the company has filed for a Nasdaq Global Select Market IPO.
Caveats remain: this is a single mid-stage trial in a soft-tissue surgery model, the opioid-rescue signal is secondary, and no head-to-head data against Journavx were reported. A separate wisdom-teeth Phase 2 (NCT06774625) appeared at the AAN 2026 congress; investors will look to the next readout to see whether the class can expand beyond Journavx's launch label.