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Photo illustration with orange background of Desmond Padhi, PharmD, interim CEO, Latigo (center), with Latigo board chair Nancy Stagliano (left) and Westlake Village BioPartners founding managing director Sean Harper, M.D. (right) -- biotech coverage from STAT — Desmond Padhi, PharmD, interim CEO, Latigo (center), with Latigo board chair Nancy Stagliano (left) and Westlake Village BioPartners founding managing director Sean Harper, M.D. (right) Illustration: Christine Kao/STAT; Courtesy: Steve Shoffner & Michael Haber

After three years being incubated by California VC Westlake Village BioPartners, a new biotech launched Wednesday with $135 million and plans to compete with Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The startup is called Latigo Biotherapeutics, and it’s launching having already started a Phase 1 trial for a non-opioid pain medicine, LTG-001. The oral therapy is designed to silence pain-signaling neurons by blocking a sodium channel called NaV 1.8.

Westlake had set out years ago to scout out new options for pain medicines, and found a research desert, according to founding managing director Sean Harper. But NaV 1.8 has emerged as a promising option because of its potential to be non-addictive and to lessen pain without affecting a person’s central nervous system, digestion, or heart rate, as opioids can. There were still few high-quality molecules in development that could be licensed from an academic lab or another drug company, so Westlake decided to develop its own.

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