DALLAS, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lantern
Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical
company using its proprietary RADR® artificial
intelligence ("A.I.") platform to transform oncology drug discovery
and development, today announced a collaboration with Johns Hopkins
Pediatric Oncology Division of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive
Cancer Center and Dr. Eric Raabe,
M.D., Ph.D. focused on Lantern's drug candidate LP-184 in the area
of brain tumors, and specifically in Atypical
Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors ("ATRT"), an
ultra-rare and fast-growing cancerous tumor of the brain that
presents primarily in children.
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"As we enriched our RADR® A.I. platform for
additional cancer indications, we began to discover common
molecular pathways that drive response to our drug candidate,
LP-184, across multiple additional CNS cancers," stated
Panna Sharma, President and CEO of
Lantern Pharma. "Chief among these newly identified CNS cancers was
ATRT, an ultra-rare and fast-growing cancerous tumor of the brain
that presents primarily in children with no effective therapies.
The urgency of directing LP-184 towards helping children battle
this particularly aggressive cancer was self-evident, as was the
opportunity to collaborate with the Johns
Hopkins' pediatric oncologist, Dr. Eric Raabe, who has devoted his career to
studying pediatric brain cancers, including ATRT."
Rhabdoid tumors (RTs) can emerge in the brain, kidneys, liver
and all compartments of the central nervous system ("CNS").
Approximately 66% of RTs occur in the CNS and are called ATRTs.
ATRTs predominantly affect infants and young children, with up to
15% of ATRTs arising in the brain. Incidence of ATRT is between 1.4
and 3.0 per million, and the survival rate is between 10% and 15%
depending on the age at diagnosis. Pediatric brain cancer is the
second-leading cause of pediatric cancer death with the incidence
rate growing at ~2.7% per year in the United States.
Dr. Eric Raabe, M.D., Ph.D., is
assistant professor of oncology in the Division of Pediatric
Oncology at Johns Hopkins and a
co-principal investigator at the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
Consortium. A physician-scientist, Dr. Raabe has devoted his career
to the pursuit of treatment options for the most high-risk
pediatric brain cancers, including ATRT where Dr. Raabe uses a
unique and highly curated panel of cell lines and xenografts in
preclinical studies for drug development and research. These models
have had extensive molecular and genomic profiling including
biomarker studies to help better understand the ATRT and other
related CNS cancers.
Over 90% of cases of ATRT are caused by a mutation which
drives a partial or whole loss of chromosome 22, resulting in the
inactivation of the SMARCB1 gene (Switch/sucrose
nonfermentable [SWI/SNF] related, Matrix-associated,
Actin-dependent Regulator of Chromatin,
subfamily B1). SMARCB1 is a protein encoding and tumor
suppressor gene which drives downstream production of the SMARCB1
protein and other SWI/SNF protein subunits which are thought to act
as tumor suppressors. While ATRT is diagnosed with standard
immunochemistry staining to detect loss of the respective
protein(s), no standard of care currently exists for ATRT and ATRT
in the brain is typically unresectable. Treatment options are
typically limited to only chemotherapy agents since radiotherapy is
not advised in children.
"To support the discovery and development of innovative
medicines that may help children diagnosed with rare diseases, the
U.S. FDA has created a Rare Pediatric Disease Designation. We
believe that the rarity of incidence of ATRT in the U.S and its
prevalence in children supports the potential for LP-184 to qualify
in the future for a possible grant by the US. FDA for a Rare
Pediatric Disease Designation for use of LP-184 for ATRT,"
continued Mr. Sharma. "Moreover, if we are successful in receiving
a Rare Pediatric Disease Designation, we believe LP-184, if it
receives ultimate approval, may possibly qualify for the granting
by the U.S. FDA of a Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher
("PRV"). We believe the award of a PRV would represent a
significant value enhancing milestone for Lantern Pharma."
Lantern Pharma plans on continuing to use
RADR® to potentially uncover and develop other
indications in brain and CNS cancers where LP-184 has the potential
to show efficacy.
Contact
Marek
Ciszewski, JD
Director, Investor Relations
628-777-3167
ir@lanternpharma.com
About Lantern Pharma
Lantern Pharma (LTRN) is a
clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary
RADR® A.I. platform and machine learning to discover
biomarker signatures that identify patients most likely to respond
to its pipeline of genomically-targeted cancer therapeutics. RADR®
A.I. platform is among the world's largest A.I. oncology datasets.
Once a drug candidate is identified and validated in silico, our
collaborator-centered business model seeks out industry partners
and leading scientific advisors to capital-efficiently develop
genetically-targeted cancer therapeutics in areas of high unmet
clinical need. Lantern is currently developing four drug candidates
and an ADC program across seven disclosed tumor targets, including
two phase 2 programs. By targeting drugs to patients whose genomic
profile identifies them as having the highest probability of
benefiting from the drug, Lantern's approach represents the
potential to deliver best-in-class outcomes. More information is
available at: www.lanternpharma.com and
Twitter @lanternpharma.
About LP-184
LP-184 is currently in multiple research
studies in collaboration with leading cancer research institutions.
With the assistance of our RADR® A.I.
platform, LP-184's mechanism of action has been well-characterized
through numerous in silico and in vivo studies and described in
published peer-reviewed articles. With observed nanomolar potency
and blood brain barrier permeability, LP-184 is an alkylating agent
that works by causing DNA damage in tumor cells. As shown by CRISPR
gene editing techniques, LP-184 activity is dependent upon the
expression of Prostaglandin Reductase 1 ("PTGR1"), which transforms
LP-184 into its bioactive form by the oxidoreductase activity of
PTGR1. Additional information on LP-184 is available at: Oncology
Drug Development Pipeline - Lantern Pharma.
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 and antibody drug conjugate (ADC) development
program; estimates regarding the development timing for our drug
candidates and ADC development program; 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 that use words such as "anticipate,"
"believe," "contemplate," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend,"
"seek," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project,"
"target," "aim," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of
these words or other 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 impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the risk that our research and the
research of our collaborators in the area of ATRT may not be
successful; (iii) the risk that we may never receive a Rare
Pediatric Disease Designation for LP-184 in ATRT and may never
qualify for the grant of a Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review
Voucher (iv) the risk that none of our product candidates has
received FDA marketing approval, and we may not be able to
successfully initiate, conduct, or conclude clinical testing for or
obtain marketing approval for our product candidates; (v) the risk
that 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2020,
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2021. You may access our Annual Report
on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2020 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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SOURCE Lantern Pharma