Pain-medicine-focused Latigo Biotherapeutics is welcoming CRO founder Neil Singla, M.D., aboard as chief medical officer.
Back in 2001, Singla formed Lotus Clinical Research, which serves as both an analgesic site and a clinical research organization. Since the CRO’s inception, Singla served as CEO, helming the company until 2021, when he transitioned into the chief scientific officer role, a position he still holds, according to his LinkedIn profile.
For more than a decade, Singla has chaired the Clinical Trials Special Interest Group for the International Association for the Study of Pain. He now joins the private California biotech taking aim at developing non-opioid pain medicines that directly target the source of pain.
"Dr. Singla's extensive experience in analgesic protocol design and implementation will be invaluable as we work to address opioid addiction—one of the most critical public health issues of our time," Latigo CEO Nima Farzan said in a company release. "We look forward to Neil's leadership in advancing our pipeline of non-opioid pain medicines."
In the same announcement, Latigo said its lead candidate—dubbed LTG-001—was well tolerated with rapid absorption among healthy participants in a phase 1 trial. The oral, selective Nav1.8 inhibitor is designed to treat both acute and chronic pain. The candidate might need to compete with Vertex's Nav1.8 inhibitor suzetrigine, or VX-548, which is expecting an FDA decision in acute pain by Jan. 30, 2025.