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 will be conducted at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, and will enroll up to 39 patients. Participants will be prospectively selected based on PTGR1 overexpression and DNA-damage-repair deficiency, a strategy that underscores Lantern's commitment to precision oncology.
The trial will evaluate LP-184 in patients who have progressed on or are ineligible for current standard-of-care therapies, addressing a significant unmet need in bladder cancer treatment. This milestone further advances Lantern's AI-driven precision oncology strategy through its proprietary RADR platform, which leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize drug development.
LP-184 is a novel acylfulvene compound that targets DNA damage repair pathways. The drug candidate is also being developed for pediatric CNS cancers through Starlight Therapeutics, Lantern's wholly owned CNS-focused subsidiary. The company's clinical pipeline includes other promising candidates such as LP-284, a TC-NER targeting compound for 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.
In addition to its clinical programs, Lantern has commercialized withZeta.ai, a multi-agentic AI co-scientist platform now available as a subscription-based research platform for the global biomedical and drug development community. This represents a new revenue stream for the company, which operates an AI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, India and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
The clearance from the EMA marks a critical step for Lantern Pharma in expanding its global clinical footprint and validating its AI-driven approach to oncology. For more details, the full press release is available at https://ibn.fm/6ku4F.
