Latigo Biotherapeutics reported positive Phase 2b results for LTG-001, a non-opioid oral inhibitor of Nav1.8 designed to deliver opioid-level analgesia. In a Phase 2b trial after abdominoplasty, the company said high- and low-dose regimens met statistical endpoints for pain reduction over 48 hours versus placebo, with the high-dose group also associated with less opioid rescue use. The findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine and position Latigo to compete in a market dominated by the need for safer acute pain alternatives, including therapies seeking differentiation from opioid exposure. Safety and tolerability were described as generally consistent across groups, with certain adverse events reported more often in treatment arms. Latigo will still need to replicate performance in additional development steps, but the dataset provides a clinical proof point for a mechanism that can plausibly blunt peripheral nociception without CNS opioid effects.