Lantern Pharma’s LP-184 Secures FDA Fast-Track Status In Battle Against Glioblastoma

Lantern Pharma Inc., a company leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize cancer therapy development, has announced that the FDA has granted Fast Track Designation for its investigational drug candidate, LP-184, aimed at treating Glioblastoma. Currently undergoing a Phase 1A clinical trial, LP-184 is being assessed for its safety and tolerability across a wide range of solid tumors, including Glioblastoma (GBM).

The optimization and advancement of LP-184 were significantly supported by Lantern’s AI platform, RADR®. This platform facilitates the validation of mechanisms that may be targeted in clinical applications to combat difficult cancers and provides valuable insights into specific patient populations. With access to over 100 billion data points, RADR® plays a crucial role in driving the discovery, development, and rescue of cancer therapies in Lantern’s portfolio, as well as supporting initiatives with various collaborators.

Glioblastoma (GBM) impacts nearly 13,000 individuals each year in the United States and approximately 300,000 worldwide, with a staggering mortality rate of 94%. For patients with GBM, existing standard treatments typically lead to a life expectancy of less than 15 months. One of the significant challenges in developing new drugs for GBM is the necessity for these therapies to effectively cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and to overcome the natural and adaptive resistance that GBM cells exhibit against temozolomide, the current first-line treatment.

This resistance primarily stems from the presence of the DNA repair enzyme MGMT1. However, LP-184 operates independently of MGMT expression, meaning its effectiveness does not rely on whether MGMT is under or over-expressed in GBM. Promising preclinical studies have demonstrated LP-184’s activity in both types of GBM models. Notably, no new therapies for GBM have received approval in over twenty years. 

Lantern Pharma is working to develop LP-184, a compound that exhibits synthetic lethality when used alongside agents that induce DNA repair deficiencies. Moreover, LP-184 has demonstrated its ability to induce double-stranded breaks in the DNA of recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) cancer cells across various in-vivo models. The compound is currently progressing through early-stage clinical trials.

Panna Sharma, President and CEO of Lantern Pharma, said in a statement, “Receiving FDA Fast Track Designation for Lantern Pharma’s LP-184 in GBM reinforces our belief that this drug-candidate can help in the critical need to find effective treatment options for patients with GBM and further supports the potential of LP-184 to address the challenges in aggressive CNS cancers, where patients have a critical need for novel and life extending therapies.”