STAT+: Latigo reports mid-stage success for would-be rival to Vertex’s pain drug Journavx — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Latigo Biotherapeutics published positive Phase 2 data on Wednesday for LTG-001, an oral non-opioid pain pill it is positioning as a potential rival to Vertex's Journavx.
- The trial enrolled 343 patients who had undergone tummy tuck surgery, randomizing them to a high dose, low dose, or placebo of LTG-001, or to a combination of acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone.
- Both doses of LTG-001 showed statistically significant pain relief versus placebo at the 48-hour mark, with high-dose patients significantly less likely to take supplemental oxycodone than placebo recipients.
- The drug was generally safe and well tolerated, with overall adverse event rates actually higher in the placebo arm than in either LTG-001 treatment arm.
- Some adverse events skewed toward treatment: 7% of high-dose patients developed fever (vs 2% on placebo) and 6% experienced lightheadedness (vs 1% on placebo).
- The article frames the non-opioid pain space as shifting from "a graveyard of drug discovery" into "a race for a multibillion-dollar market" now that Journavx has broken through.
Why it matters: With Journavx as the only approved non-opioid in this class, Latigo now has Phase 2 efficacy in 343 surgical patients and a differentiated result — reduced rescue opioid use — that Vertex's drug will eventually be benchmarked against. The specific side-effect signal (7% fever, 6% lightheadedness on high dose vs 1-2% on placebo) is the earliest differentiator that will shape Phase 3 design.
Ask SkimNews
