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, to be conducted at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, will enroll up to 39 patients and prospectively select participants based on PTGR1 overexpression and DNA-damage-repair deficiency. This trial is designed to evaluate LP-184 in patients who have progressed on or are ineligible for current standard-of-care therapies, further advancing Lantern's AI-driven precision oncology strategy through its proprietary RADR platform.
The EMA clearance is significant because it allows Lantern to expand its clinical program into Europe, potentially accelerating patient enrollment and regulatory pathways. Bladder cancer is a major unmet medical need, with limited treatment options for patients who relapse after first-line therapy. By using biomarkers to select patients most likely to respond, Lantern aims to improve clinical outcomes and reduce trial costs. The company's RADR platform, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze genomic data and predict drug sensitivity, is central to this approach.
Lantern's pipeline includes other promising candidates: LP-284 for hematologic and solid tumors, and LP-300, which is being evaluated in the HARMONIC Phase 2 trial for never-smoker patients with relapsed advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Additionally, LP-184 is being developed for pediatric CNS cancers through Starlight Therapeutics, Lantern's wholly owned CNS-focused subsidiary. The company also recently launched withZeta.ai, a multi-agentic AI co-scientist platform now commercially available as a subscription-based research platform, representing a new revenue stream.
The trial at Rigshospitalet underscores Lantern's commitment to precision oncology and its ability to leverage international collaborations. For more details, the full press release is available at https://ibn.fm/6ku4F. Additional information about Lantern Pharma can be found in the company's newsroom at https://ibn.fm/LTRN.
