Hunting a non-opioid painkiller, a biotech startup reveals plans to chase Vertex

A little over four years ago, biotechnology giant Amgen retreated from neuroscience research, halting much of its work developing treatments for diseases of the brain and trimming associated staff.

Amgen’s pivot proved a boon for a small startup that was then just getting started in the big drugmaker’s backyard. Latigo Biotherapeutics, which, like Amgen, is based in Thousand Oaks, California, quickly hired some of those former Amgen scientists to jump-start its own neuroscience plans.

“We were fortunate that, just at that moment, Amgen strategically exited neuroscience and laid off a lot of really good people into the local community here, including folks I knew quite well from my days as head of R&D at Amgen,” said Sean Harper, who after leaving Amgen in 2018 became co-founding managing director of venture firm Westlake Village Biopartners.

Westlake created Latigo and later led a $135 million fundraising that gave the startup the resources to build a pipeline of painkillers it hopes could yield a non-addictive alternative to opioids like Vicodin. On Wednesday, the company debuted publicly, revealing the Series A financing as well as its lead drug candidate.

Latigo’s pitch is similar to one from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which last month released late-stage trial results showing a non-opioid treatment it developed could alleviate pain following surgery. Vertex plans to soon ask for regulatory approval for the drug, which, if cleared, would be the first of its type.

Latigo’s target is the same as Vertex’s: a kind of molecular “gate” found in certain nerve cells that relays pain signals to the brain. This gate, a sodium channel known as NaV1.8, is only found in peripheral nerve cells, meaning drugs that block it could avoid the kind of brain-involved side effects that make opioids dangerous.

Vertex’s results provided clinical validation of a hypothesis that was already well supported by genetic data. They also set a high bar for success. And with a drug ready for regulatory review, Vertex has established a sizable head start on any competition.

Even so, Latigo claims there’s room to improve on its larger rival’s treatment.

“When a new category opens up like this, somebody makes a first-in-class molecule. Occasionally, that’s the best-in-class, but most of the time something else comes along that is more refined,” said Harper. “So we’re really focused on the differentiation that we can bring to the table.”