DALLAS, Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lantern
Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN), a clinical stage
biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary RADR® artificial
intelligence ("A.I.") platform to transform drug discovery and
development, and identify patients who will benefit from its
portfolio of targeted oncology therapeutics, announced today new
scientific data that substantiates blood brain barrier permeability
(BBB) for its drug candidate LP-184. LP-184 is being targeted for
treating Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), an aggressive malignant
form of brain cancer that comprises about 52% of all primary
malignant brain tumors according to the American Association of
Neurological Surgeons. GBM has a median survival rate of only
15 months and ranks among the most aggressive of human cancers. It
is considered an orphan disease for which there is no cure. The
global GBM treatment market is projected to reach $3.3 billion by 2024, according to GlobalData,
with the U.S. representing the largest market.
The ability of a drug candidate to cross the blood brain barrier
is of critical importance in treatment outcomes for CNS and brain
cancers. Many drugs fail in clinical trials because of their low
blood brain barrier permeability. Lantern's A.I. engine along
with algorithms tuned to predict BBB permeability played an
important role in helping determine which CNS cancers and which
genomically-defined subtypes of CNS cancer should be prioritized
for development.
The current standard of care for GBM consists of de-bulking
surgery followed by combined treatments with fractionated ionizing
radiation (IR) and the DNA alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ). The
effectiveness of standard therapy with TMZ is limited because the
response of GBM to TMZ is dependent upon the expression of the DNA
repair enzymatic protein, O6-alkylguanine DNA
alkyltransferase (MGMT). Over the period of treatment, tumors
can evolve and begin to overexpress MGMT and therefore become
largely resistant to TMZ. At the stage of GBM relapse and
recurrence, no effective therapy strategies currently exist. LP-184
has a different mechanism of action relative to TMZ and has not
demonstrated limitations due to MGMT levels, the enzymatic protein
associated with resistance to TMZ in GBM and gliomas.
LP-184 works by causing DNA damage in cancer cells that can be
repaired exclusively by the nucleotide excision repair (NER)
pathway, while TMZ causes damage that can be repaired
exclusively by the base excision repair pathway (BER). These
approaches to killing tumor cells may be complementary and
represent the potential for future combination therapy
applications. Using in-silico tools, and also generating further
in-vitro data from both neuronal cell-plates, and neurospheres,
LP-184 demonstrated permeability that was in line with TMZ and
other therapies being used in GBM today, while also demonstrating
nano-molar potency.
Panna Sharma, CEO of Lantern
Pharma, stated: "This data is extremely significant as it provides
evidence that opens up a range of brain cancers with high clinical
need that we should pursue, and also provides evidence that our
RADR® platform is working as was designed. Our mission
is to transform and accelerate the cancer drug development
process. If we can compress the time to clinical trials, and
de-risk LP-184, we can save years of research and millions of
dollars in developing treatments for GBM and potentially other CNS
and brain cancers."
Mr. Sharma continued, "As part of our development strategy we
will be providing updates on new collaborations and research
studies with leading research and translational cancer centers to
help us further validate our findings and guide the ideal clinical
usage of the compound in GBM. Based on data from our RADR platform,
the blood brain barrier profile validation, and information on the
genomics that seem to drive response to LP-184 we are now targeting
a broader range of central nervous system cancers, including
cancers that metastasize to the brain, and pediatric brain
tumors."
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 follow the company
on Twitter @lanternpharma.
Contact
Marek Ciszewski, JD
Director, Investor Relations
628-777-3167
investor@lanternpharma.com
Forward-looking Statements
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 and transform the pace, risk and cost of
oncology drug discovery
and development 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 (i) the risk that results of
our preclinical studies concerning blood brain barrier permeability
for LP-184 may not be indicative of results obtained in future
clinical trials; (ii) the risk that our LP-184 drug candidate may
not advance through the preclinical development and clinical trial
process on a timely basis, or at all; (iii) the risk that the
results of such trials will not warrant submission for approval
from the United States Food and Drug Administration or
equivalent foreign regulatory agencies; (iv) the risk that the
Company may not be able to successfully conclude clinical testing
or obtain marketing approval for its LP-184 drug candidate, (v) no
drug product based on our proprietary RADR A.I. platform has
received FDA marketing approval or otherwise been incorporated into
a commercial product, and (vi) those other factors set forth 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.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lantern-pharma-announces-scientific--preclinical-data-indicating-blood-brain-barrier-permeability-for-drug-candidate-lp-184-in-glioblastoma-and-potentially-other-cns-cancers-301192777.html
SOURCE Lantern Pharma