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 trial, 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.
The study targets patients who have progressed on or are ineligible for current standard-of-care therapies, addressing a significant unmet need in bladder cancer treatment. By leveraging its proprietary RADR® platform, Lantern aims to further advance its AI-driven precision oncology strategy, which uses machine learning to match patients with therapies most likely to be effective based on their tumor’s molecular profile.
LP-184 is an acylfulvene compound that has shown promise in preclinical studies for tumors with specific DNA repair deficiencies. The biomarker-guided approach is intended to increase the likelihood of clinical benefit while potentially reducing side effects by selecting patients whose tumors are most vulnerable to the drug’s mechanism of action.
This EMA clearance marks a milestone for Lantern’s European expansion and underscores the growing role of artificial intelligence in oncology drug development. The company’s RADR platform analyzes large datasets to identify biomarkers and predict drug responses, potentially accelerating the development of targeted therapies.
Lantern also recently launched Zeta.ai, a multi-agentic AI co-scientist platform now commercially available as a subscription-based research platform. This represents a new revenue stream for the company, which operates an AI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, India and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
The bladder cancer trial is expected to provide critical data on LP-184’s safety and efficacy, while also validating Lantern’s precision medicine approach. If successful, it could offer a new treatment option for bladder cancer patients who have exhausted current therapies.
For more information, visit the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/LTRN.
