Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN), an AI-native precision oncology company, announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has cleared an investigator-initiated Phase 1b/2 clinical trial evaluating its lead drug candidate LP-184 (zirdafulven) in patients with advanced or metastatic bladder cancer. The biomarker-guided study, to be conducted at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, will enroll up to 39 patients and prospectively select participants based on PTGR1 overexpression and DNA-damage-repair deficiency. Lantern stated that the trial will evaluate LP-184 in patients who have progressed on or are ineligible for current standard-of-care therapies, while further advancing its AI-driven precision oncology strategy through its proprietary RADR platform.
This milestone is significant for Lantern Pharma as it marks the expansion of LP-184's clinical development into Europe. The trial's design, which uses biomarkers to select patients likely to respond, exemplifies the company's precision oncology approach. LP-184 is already being developed for other indications, including pediatric CNS cancers through Starlight Therapeutics, Lantern's wholly owned CNS-focused subsidiary. The RADR platform, which combines AI and machine learning, is central to identifying these biomarkers and optimizing patient selection.
Lantern Pharma's pipeline includes other candidates such as LP-284, a TC-NER targeting compound in hematologic and solid tumors, and LP-300, a cisplatin/ethacraplatin analog being evaluated in the HARMONIC Phase 2 trial for never-smoker patients with relapsed advanced lung adenocarcinoma following TKI treatment. Additionally, the company has commercialized withZeta.ai, a multi-agentic AI co-scientist platform, as a subscription-based research tool for the global biomedical community, representing a new revenue stream. Lantern operates an AI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, India and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
The approval from EMA underscores the potential of LP-184 in addressing unmet needs in bladder cancer, a disease where standard therapies often fail. By leveraging AI to guide trial enrollment, Lantern aims to improve outcomes and reduce costs associated with traditional drug development. For more information, the full press release is available at https://ibn.fm/6ku4F. Updates on Lantern Pharma can be found in their newsroom at https://ibn.fm/LTRN.
