DALLAS, July 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lantern
Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN), a clinical stage biotechnology company
using its proprietary RADR® artificial intelligence ("A.I.")
platform to improve drug discovery and development, and identify
patients who will benefit from its portfolio of targeted oncology
therapeutics, today announced its financial results for the second
quarter ended June 30, 2020, and
provided an update on its R&D pipeline and other corporate
developments.
"Lantern Pharma achieved important scientific and operational
milestones during the quarter that have us well positioned for
growth as we focus on being the leader in A.I.-enabled oncology
drug development," said Panna
Sharma, CEO and President of Lantern Pharma. "Our
proprietary RADR® platform recently surpassed 500
million data points, further accelerating our path to one billion
curated oncology data points in the next few quarters. We have also
advanced our manufacturing capabilities and network for our
upcoming clinical trials for LP-300 in non-small cell lung cancer
among never smokers, and for LP-184 in genomically defined solid
tumors and glioblastoma. On June 15,
we completed a successful IPO, raising gross proceeds of
$26.3 million, significantly
strengthening the Company's balance sheet and provides additional
resources to support the continued development of our promising and
growing pipeline of targeted cancer therapies. Our approach and
vision is to bring cancer therapies to market faster and with
reduced cost and risk and ultimately improve patient outcomes. We
are entering what I believe is the Golden Age of A.I. where
industries will continue to be rapidly transformed and massive
advancements made that can benefit medicine, health and those
willing to invest in and develop these disruptive
opportunities."
Corporate and Scientific Highlights
- Closed initial public offering – In June 2020, Lantern Pharma closed its initial
public offering of 1,750,000 shares of its common stock at a public
offering price of $15.00 per share,
for gross proceeds of $26,250,000,
before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering
expenses.
- Initiated multiple preclinical studies for LP-184 in
genomically defined solid tumors and Glioblastoma (GBM) - The
studies aim to further validate the genomic signature of LP-184 and
help to inform IND development efforts. The data generated in these
studies will also support the continued expansion of our RADR®
(Response Algorithm for Drug Positioning and Rescue) A.I.
platform.
- RADR® surpasses 500 million data points – Lantern Pharma
is ahead of its initial platform development schedule of reaching
400 million data points by the end of 2020. The Company is now on
track to reach over 1 billion data points within the next several
quarters.
- Presented at American Association for Cancer Research
(AACR) – Two presentations that detailed Lantern Pharma's use
of its RADR® A.I. platform in the development of LP-184, a molecule
with nanomolar potency and strong activity in cancers with KEAP1
and KRAS mutations. LP-184 is one of three cancer drug candidates
in Lantern Pharma's pipeline.
- Advanced manufacturing capabilities and network to support
LP-300 and LP-184 trials – the Company established a
manufacturing network in preparation for its Phase 2 clinical trial
of LP-300 in non-small cell lung cancer among never smokers and for
LP-184 in preclinical development for genomically defined solid
tumors that overexpress certain RNA as well as for glioblastoma
multiforme.
- Continue to advance our collaborations with leading academic
and cancer research centers - for the purposes of examining
additional potential cancer indications for our drugs, improving
and validating the existing genomic signatures that correspond to
patient response, establishing sites, and recruiting potential
investigators for upcoming clinical trials.
Q2 2020 Financial Highlights
Cash Position: Cash and cash equivalents were
$23.8 million as of June 30, 2020, compared to $1.2 million as of December 31, 2019. The increase was primarily due
to proceeds from the IPO in June
2020.
R&D Expenses: Research and development
expenses were $157,023 for the
quarter ended June 30, 2020, compared
to $361,273 for the quarter ended
June 30, 2019. The decrease was
primarily attributable to reductions in product candidate
manufacturing related expenses reflecting completion of process
development and scale-up studies conducted in the prior year
period.
G&A Expenses: General and administrative expenses
were $676,399 for the quarter ended
June 30, 2020, compared to
$268,120 for the quarter ended
June 30, 2019. This increase was
primarily due to an increase in expenses associated with
transitioning to and becoming a public company.
Net Loss: Net loss was $833,422 for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, compared to a net loss of
$629,393 for the quarter ended
June 30, 2019.
Sharma continued, "Developing drugs by leveraging artificial
intelligence is central to transforming the cost and efficiency of
the pharma industry and improving the personalization of therapies
for cancer patients. By identifying clinical candidates, together
with relevant genomic, clinical and phenotypic data, we believe our
approach will help us design more efficient pre-clinical studies
and more targeted clinical trials, thereby accelerating our drug
candidates' time to approval and eventually to market.
RADR® is central to our process in achieving this
outcome rapidly and with reduced costs. We currently have three
compounds in development, one in a Phase 2 trial in prostate cancer
with our partner, Oncology Venture, one that is preparing to enter
into a Phase 2 trial, and one in preclinical development."
"We believe we have developed a sustainable and scalable
biopharma business model by combining a unique, oncology-focused
big-data platform that leverages artificial intelligence and
machine learning with active clinical and preclinical programs that
are being advanced in targeted cancer therapeutic areas with
significant clinical needs," concluded Sharma.
Conference Call:
Lantern Pharma will host a conference call and webcast today at
8:00 a.m. ET.
Conference Call & Webcast Details
- Toll-free Domestic & Canada: 800.791.4813 – conference ID
10552
- International: 785-424-1102 – conference ID 10552
- US and Canada callers one
touch dial: +1.800.791.4813,,10552#
The webcast will be available in the "Investors" section of the
company website at https://ir.lanternpharma.com/ under the
News & Events page.
Replay Details
A replay of the conference call will be available for replay
until 11:59 pm ET August 30, 2020.
Replay Number: 1-888-567-0053, no passcode will be needed.
A live audio-only webcast and related presentation materials
will also be accessible on the Lantern Pharma corporate website:
https://ir.lanternpharma.com/. Web participants are encouraged to
register 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. The webcast
will be archived on the Lantern Pharma website for 6 months.
About Lantern Pharma
Lantern Pharma (LTRN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company innovating the repurposing, revitalization and development
of precision therapeutics in oncology. We leverage advances in
machine learning, genomics, and artificial intelligence by using a
proprietary A.I. platform to discover biomarker signatures that
help identify patients more likely to respond to our pipeline of
cancer therapeutics. Lantern's focus is to improve the outcome for
patients by leveraging our technology to uncover, rescue and
develop abandoned or failed drugs. Our current pipeline of three
drugs, with two programs in clinical stages and two in preclinical,
focuses on cancers that have unique and unmet clinical needs with a
clearly defined patient population. We believe that the use of
machine learning, genomics and computational methods can help
accelerate the revitalization, refocusing and development of small
molecule-based therapies. By targeting drugs to patients whose
genomic profile identifies them as having the highest probability
of benefiting from the drug, this approach represents the potential
to deliver best-in-class outcomes. Our team seeks out experienced
industry partners, world-class scientific advisors, and innovative
clinical-regulatory approaches to assist in delivering cancer
therapies to patients as quickly and efficiently as possible. For
more information, please visit the company's website at
www.lanternpharma.com or Twitter @lanternpharma.
Contact:
Marek Ciszewski, JD
Director, Investor Relations
628-777-3167
investor@lanternpharma.com
Forward-looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended. These forward-looking statements include, among other
things, statements relating to: future events or our future
financial performance; the potential advantages of our
RADR® platform in identifying drug candidates and
patient populations that are likely to respond to a drug candidate;
our strategic plans to advance the development of our drug
candidates; estimates regarding the development timing for our drug
candidates; our strategic plans to expand the number of data points
that our RADR® platform can access and analyze; our
research and development efforts of our internal drug discovery
programs and the utilization of our RADR® platform to
streamline the drug development process; our intention to leverage
artificial intelligence, machine learning and genomic data to
streamline the drug development process and to identify patient
populations that would likely respond to a drug candidate;
estimates regarding potential markets and potential market sizes;
sales estimates for our drug candidates and our plans to discover
and develop drug candidates and to maximize their commercial
potential by advancing such drug candidates ourselves or in
collaboration with others. Any statements that are not statements
of historical fact (including, without limitation, statements to
the effect that Lantern Pharma Inc. or our management "believes",
"expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "plans" (and similar
expressions) should be considered forward-looking statements. There
are a number of important factors that could cause our actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by the
forward-looking statements, such as the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic, the results of our clinical trials, and the impact of
competition. Additional factors can be found in the Risk Factors
section in our final prospectus, dated June
10, 2020, for our initial public offering, on file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. You may access our June 10, 2020 final prospectus under the investor
SEC filings tab of our website at www.lanternpharma.com or on the
SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Given these risks and uncertainties,
we can give no assurances that our forward-looking statements will
prove to be accurate, or that any other results or events projected
or contemplated by our forward-looking statements will in fact
occur, and we caution investors not to place undue reliance on
these statements. All forward-looking statements in this press
release represent our judgment as of the date hereof, and, except
as otherwise required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update
any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual
results or changes in our expectations.
Condensed
Consolidated Balance Sheets
|
|
|
June
30,
|
December
31,
|
|
2020
(unaudited)
|
2019
|
CURRENT
ASSETS
|
|
|
Cash
|
$23,798,343
|
$1,232,030
|
Other current
asset
|
1,728,539
|
-
|
Prepaid
expense
|
70,775
|
788
|
Total current assets
|
25,597,657
|
1,232,818
|
|
|
|
Property and
equipment, net
|
15,377
|
8,758
|
Deferred
offering costs
|
-
|
191,000
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
ASSETS
|
$25,613,034
|
$1,432,576
|
|
|
|
CURRENT
LIABILITIES
|
|
|
Accounts
payable and accrued expenses
|
$467,988
|
$489,292
|
Insurance
payable
|
1,705,846
|
-
|
Note
payable
|
102,831
|
-
|
Total
current liabilities
|
2,276,665
|
489,292
|
|
|
|
Loan
payable
|
108,500
|
-
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
LIABILITIES
|
2,385,165
|
489,292
|
|
|
|
STOCKHOLDERS'
EQUITY
|
|
|
Preferred Stock - Par
Value (1,000,000 authorized at June 30, 2020; 3,480,000 authorized
at December 31, 2019; $.0001 par value) (Zero shares issued and
outstanding at June 30, 2020; 2,438,866 shares issued and
outstanding at December 31, 2019)
|
-
|
244
|
Common Stock – Par
Value (25,000,000 authorized at June 30, 2020; 12,180,000
authorized at December 31, 2019; $.0001 par value) (6,217,577
shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2020; 1,978,269 shares
issued and outstanding at December 31, 2019)
|
622
|
198
|
Additional paid-in
capital
|
31,289,650
|
7,694,547
|
|
|
|
Accumulated
deficit
|
(8,062,403)
|
(6,751,705)
|
|
|
|
Total
stockholders' equity
|
23,227,869
|
943,284
|
|
|
|
TOTAL LIABILITIES
AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
|
$25,613,034
|
$1,432,576
|
Condensed
Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)
|
|
|
Three Months
Ended
|
Six Months
Ended
|
|
June
30,
|
June
30,
|
|
2020
|
2019
|
2020
|
2019
|
Operating
expenses
|
|
|
|
|
General and
administrative
|
676,399
|
268,120
|
1,016,571
|
536,049
|
Research and
development
|
157,023
|
361,273
|
294,127
|
547,317
|
Total operating
expenses
|
833,422
|
629,393
|
1,310,698
|
1,083,366
|
|
|
|
|
|
NET LOSS
|
$(833,422)
|
$(629,393)
|
$(1,310,698)
|
$(1,083,366)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net loss per share of
common shares, basic and diluted
|
$(0.31)
|
$(0.32)
|
$(0.55)
|
$(0.55)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted-average
number of common shares outstanding, basic and diluted
|
2,719,198
|
1,978,269
|
2,370,082
|
1,978,269
|
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SOURCE Lantern Pharma