DALLAS — Lantern Pharma Inc. said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for patent claims covering the biomarker-guided use of LP-184, also known as zirdafulven, in several solid tumor cancers.
The allowed claims under U.S. Patent Application No. 17/230,821 cover methods for selecting and treating patients with ovarian, primary liver, kidney or thyroid cancer based on elevated expression of three genes — PTGR1, PTPN14 and ASPH — in tumor samples.
Lantern Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company using artificial intelligence and genomic data to develop targeted cancer therapies.
“PTGR1 is unique in that it sits on both sides of the equation — it is associated with aggressive tumor biology, and it is the enzyme that activates LP-184 inside the tumor cell,” said Kishor Bhatia, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Lantern Pharma. “Combining it with PTPN14 and ASPH gives us a selection signature that leverages additional features of tumors that either make them aggressive by impacting proliferation, as in the case of ASPH, or are part of parallel pathways that confer sensitivity to LP-184, as is the case of PTPN14.”
“The allowance recognizes that this biomarker signature is a unique approach, and we expect this to help us increase the likelihood of response and benefit for patients in our clinical trials,” Bhatia added.
Lantern said its proprietary RADR® artificial intelligence platform played a central role in the development of LP-184 by identifying overexpression of prostaglandin reductase-1, or PTGR1, and low expression of multiple DNA damage repair genes as predictors of sensitivity to the drug.
LP-184 is a prodrug designed to be activated inside cancer cells by PTGR1, which is frequently overexpressed in tumors. Once activated, the drug produces a reactive metabolite that damages cancer-cell DNA and causes interstrand cross-links and double-strand breaks.
Tumors with deficient DNA damage repair pathways may be unable to repair that damage, resulting in cancer-cell death while potentially limiting damage to normal cells, according to the company.
Lantern completed a Phase 1a trial of LP-184 involving 63 patients with recurrent or refractory advanced solid tumors. Among patients treated at or above the effective therapeutic dose, the drug produced a 45% disease control rate, representing 29 patients.
The company plans to evaluate LP-184 in multiple Phase 1b/2 precision oncology trials involving advanced, aggressive and rare cancers during 2026.
Lantern said it also intends to pursue additional patent filings covering other cancer indications and biomarker-guided uses of LP-184.
LP-184 is a next-generation acylfulvene designed to target solid tumors with deficiencies in DNA damage repair pathways. The drug has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration Fast Track designation for triple-negative breast cancer and glioblastoma, as well as Orphan Drug designation for malignant gliomas, pancreatic cancer and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors.
