DALLAS, Dec. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lantern Pharma
(Nasdaq: LTRN), a clinical-stage biopharma company using its
proprietary RADR® artificial intelligence ("A.I.")
platform to transform cancer drug development and identify patients
who will benefit from its targeted oncology therapeutics, today
announced a collaboration and research agreement with the Johns
Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Kennedy
Krieger Institute. The collaboration will focus on the further
development of Lantern's LP-184 in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
Based in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a leading research center for
brain cancers and one of the largest brain tumor treatment and
research centers in the world with a focus on treating an extremely
large number of patients affected by all types of brain tumors.
The collaboration will focus on advancing the targeted use of
LP-184 in defined subtypes of GBM and clarifying the most promising
clinical applications for the drug candidate. The goal of the
collaboration is to develop a clinically ready program that has
characterized the drug candidate with the most biologically
relevant and robust genomic or biomarker signature. By having a
gene signature that can be used in identifying patients that have
the potential for the highest response, Lantern can potentially
accelerate future clinical trials and shorten the time to achieving
patient benefit for GBM patients.
The research program is at the forefront of translational cancer
medicine and will use patient-derived cancer cells that are studied
using physiologically relevant in vitro and in vivo models. This
innovative approach allows researchers to more precisely understand
the biology of what actually happens inside the cancer tumor, which
will more accurately establish the precise biomarker signatures and
help provide data-driven insight into additional mechanisms that
can be leveraged in the fight against brain cancer.
"Collaborations with world-leading cancer centers are an
essential part of our strategy to rapidly advance the insights
driving our therapeutic programs and grow the power of our
RADR® A.I. platform by adding millions of new, unique,
and proprietary data points in areas of high unmet need in cancer,"
said Panna Sharma, CEO of Lantern
Pharma. "This relationship with Johns
Hopkins is expected to allow us to use state-of-the-art
models and biological methods to add more physiologically relevant
data and insights into the mechanisms of LP-184, and further shape
our algorithms for how our drug candidates interact with specific
brain cancer subtypes. We believe the unique insights we gain will
equip Lantern with critical advantages in our aim of accelerating
LP-184's path to clinical trials and ultimately commercialization
while saving millions of dollars in development costs. This
data-enabled and biomarker-based approach has the potential to
meaningfully bend the cost curve of cancer drug development and
help bring personalized cancer therapies to patients with reduced
economic burden, and greater efficacy."
The research will be led by John
Laterra, MD, Ph.D., an internationally recognized researcher
in neurology, oncology, and neuroscience. Dr. Laterra serves as the
Co-Director of the Brain Cancer Program and the Director of the
Division of Neuro-Oncology at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine where he specializes in investigating
mechanisms of brain tumor malignancy, tumor vascular biology, and
identification of new therapeutic targets in gliomas.
LP-184 is a DNA-damaging small molecule drug candidate currently
in preclinical development for certain genomically defined solid
tumors, including glioblastomas. As a next-generation alkylating
agent that preferentially damages DNA in cancer cells that
overexpress certain biomarkers and can cross the blood-brain
barrier, we believe LP-184 has the potential to be used as both
monotherapy as well as a synergistic agent in combination with
other drugs.
"We are focused on finding how LP-184 can exploit certain
molecular mechanisms in gliomas to offer improved disease
management and survival for glioblastoma patients," said Dr.
Kishor Bhatia, Chief Scientific
Officer at Lantern Pharma. Dr. Bhatia continued, "We look forward
to our collaboration with Johns
Hopkins, the Brain Cancer Program and Dr. Laterra who is at
the forefront of GBM research. His approach combines real world
patient insights along with advanced methodologies and
patient-derived models that can improve the quality of the insight
and provide more relevant data on efficacy. We look forward to
sharing these results with the broader scientific and clinical
community."
Among several objectives, the research goals are to determine
whether certain genomic signatures generated with RADR®,
Lantern's A.I. platform, can predict response to LP-184 and a more
favorable outcome as compared to standard of care agents being used
today. LP-184 has been advanced using Lantern's proprietary
RADR® A.I. platform that leverages over one billion
curated cancer data points, machine learning, genomics, and
computational biology to accelerate the discovery of potential
mechanisms of action, and biomarker signatures that correlate to
drug response in cancer patients.
Although significant recent advances have been made in the use
of targeted and biomarker-based therapies in cancer, GBM remains an
area that has not experienced significant improvement in patient
outcomes. The overall five-year survival rate for GBM across all
stages remains at only 5.5% in the US, and GBM accounts for nearly
52% of all primary brain tumors each year according to the National
Cancer Institute.
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, J.D.
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 GBM and 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.
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