Lantern Pharma aims to take drug to phase 3 for $100-200 million with AI-powered approach

Lantern Pharma’s AI-powered sprint 

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Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN), a publicly traded clinical-stage biotech company with a market cap of around $79 million as of mid-March 2024, is shooting for developing $200 million drugs with a machine learning-based platform.

The oncology-focused firm Lantern Pharma, profiled last year, has developed a new drug (LP-284) in less than three years for under $3 million, which CEO Panna Sharma notes is “unheard of.” By using AI, Sharma projects that the company could develop a drug from concept to phase 3 trials for a price tag of $100–200 million — a small fraction of the typically $2.3 billion drug development price tag.

“We’re developing new drugs in less than two and a half years, from an idea through GMP manufacturing, to orphan indications, and multiple publications at ASH [American Society of Hematology] and SOHO [Society of Hem…

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Debiopharm’s multilink technology and partnerships drive oncology pipeline strategy

Debiopharm, an independent Swiss biopharmaceutical company based in Lausanne, seeks to carve a niche in the competitive oncology and infectious disease markets. Its business model focuses on in-licensing promising drug candidates from universities and smaller biotechs, aiming to add value through development. (The company is also partnering with AI-focused firms like VeriSIM Life.) Sandra von Meier, its head of business development, highlights the company’s exploration of DNA damage response pathways, with Debio 0123, a Wee1 kinase inhibitor, as a notable Phase I asset. Debiopharm also emphasizes its proprietary Multilink linker technology for antibody-drug conjugates, a field with potential to improve therapeutic outcomes.

We’ve lightly edited the responses for brevity.

Can you provide a broad overview of Debiopharm and its drug discovery and development strategy?

Sandra von Meier

Sandra von Me…

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Devices, disease, and digital: Holy Grail of healthcare AI

[Image courtesy of GE HealthCare]

In episode 3 of AI Meets Life Sci, DeviceTalks Managing Editor Kayleen Brown and Pharma and Biotech Editor Brian Buntz sit down with GE HealthCare Chief Digital Officer and GM of Oncology Ben Newton and Haley Schwartz of Catalyze Healthcare to discuss the impacts of AI to screen, diagnose, prognose, and treat cure disease while addressing real-world implementation issues from regulation and liability to clinician trust and adoption. They review the AI challenge of organizing disarrayed informational islands such as technology, clinical protocols, and digital solutions into cohesive, well-developed systems and offer insight into the medtech industry’s progress in this area.

Tune in and subscribe to AI Meets Life Sci on all major podcast channels and follow youtube.com/@DeviceTalks or AI Meets Life Sci YouTube Podcast to ensure you never miss an episode.

The AI Holy Grail for …
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Devices, disease, and digital: Holy Grail of healthcare AI

[Image courtesy of GE HealthCare]

In episode 3 of AI Meets Life Sci, DeviceTalks Managing Editor Kayleen Brown and Pharma and Biotech Editor Brian Buntz sit down with GE HealthCare Chief Digital Officer and GM of Oncology Ben Newton and Haley Schwartz of Catalyze Healthcare to discuss the impacts of AI to screen, diagnose, prognose, and treat cure disease while addressing real-world implementation issues from regulation and liability to clinician trust and adoption.

They review the AI challenge of organizing disarrayed informational islands such as technology, clinical protocols, and digital solutions into cohesive, well-developed systems and offer insight into the medtech industry’s progress in this area.

The AI Holy Grail for decision support

Ben Newton

AI technologies emerged quickly over the last several years in medical imaging and oncology…

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Biotech bounces back at JPM 2024 on optimism, breakthroughs and calculated bets, but uncertainties persist

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At the dawn of 2024, there’s a sense of renewed optimism in the biotech sector despite a downturn that has lasted for more than two years. At the JP Morgan Health Care Conference, deal-making activity showed signs of strength. For instance, Merck agreed to acquire cancer drug developer Harpoon Therapeutics for roughly $680 million, highlighting continued interest in oncology cancer therapies. Meanwhile, Novartis announced plans to acquire Calypso Biotech, a deal involving an upfront payment of $250 million with potential milestones worth up to $175 million.

“I feel like in the last two or three weeks, we’ve almost made up for 50% of the deals that didn’t happen in 2023,” quipped Jen Nwankwo, CEO of 1910 Genetics, a company specializing in computational biology and automated laboratory technologies. Pointing to recent clinical successes and FDA approva…

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What’s next for biotech? Q4 2023 funding trends point beyond the usual suspects

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Oncology may continue be one of the hottest sectors across the pharma sector, but other therapeutic areas are catching up in terms of innovation and investment. While oncology and hematology jointly accounted for about one-third of the new FDA approvals in 2023, investors are increasingly betting on precision medicine, advanced drug delivery systems and the use of AI and machine learning for drug discovery and development.

The shift is not entirely new. In a report from late 2023, McKinsey also notes ML-enabled drug discovery, cell therapies, and gene editing continue to attract significant funding, making up over two-thirds of biotech VC deals in 2022, constituting $15.5 billion in total. The consultancy also noted that immunology had displaced oncology as the hottest therapeutic area for asset-based biotech investments, also citing allogeneic cell therapies …

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Core trends in 2023 FDA drug approvals: Oncology, neurology and hematology dominate

2023 was a big year for hematology, neurology and oncology, with the medical specialties seeing the most FDA approvals. In terms of sponsors, Pfizer had the most approvals with six total, followed by UCB and Chiesi, each with three apiece.

When looking at commercial prospects, AstraZeneca’s respiratory syncytial virus antibody Beyfortus could be the biggest blockbuster from the 2023 cohort with expected peak sales of $1.9 billion. Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi could also be a major success, making up for the tepid demand for Aduhelm, which won conditional approval in 2021. While Aduhelm’s sales have sputtered, Leqembi could see peak revenue of $4.8 billion according to analysts.

Oncology continues to be a hot specialty with the most competition among the newly approved drugs, as the FDA continues to green light new entrants in crowded target classes such as PD-1 inhibitors.

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Pharma M&A activity primed for another high-flying year in 2024

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Despite challenging interest rates and regulatory environment, pharma M&A activity surged in 2023 with deal volume up more than 30% from the prior year based on a review of more than 200 acquisitions since 2018. The total disclosed deal value in 2023 also more than doubled the prior year’s tally to surpass $100 billion. While the pandemic boosted research into areas such as mRNA, it had something of a chilling effect on M&A. As pharma companies begin to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, M&A activity has gained momentum. 

Analysts upbeat on biopharma M&A activity in 2024

According to PwC, the M&A activity in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector could continue humming in 2024. Despite a challenging interest rate environment, PwC projects the sector to see deal values ranging from $225 billion to $275 billion. Deal volume in 2023 was in line with pre-pandemic levels. …

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50 of the best-funded biotechs of 2023

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As the year draws to a close, it is clear that molecular science and diagnostics is the hottest funding area in the biotech industry. In an analysis of 50 of the best-funded biotechs of 2023 focused on human health, molecular and science and diagnostics startups collectively attracting roughly $945 million, dwarfing the figures in other segments. The next popular two niches, gene therapies and oncology, had average funding levels of approximately $245 million and $170 million, respectively. While AI has received a significant amount of attention this year, biotechs specializing in that field garnered an average funding of only about $66 million. Outside of the life sciences, startups with a broader focus on AI raised a cumulative average of $202.47 million, based on an analysis of close to 1000 companies.

Caris Life Sciences has raised nearly $1.7B to date

In terms of best-funded companies overall,…

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How Lantern Pharma and Code Ocean partnered on oncology drug development

A vision for data-driven drug development in oncology

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When Peter Carr, principal software architect of Lantern Pharma, stepped into his full-time role in September 2020, the company was on the cusp of a transformation. While AI had been a focus for a number of years, a fresh infusion of cash provided a possibility of expanding its AI capabilities and machine learning capabilities to drive down the cost of drug development in oncology.

Founded in 2012, the company went public in June 2020, raising $26 million. By the time he officially joined, Carr was already familiar with its operations, having previously worked as a consultant in 2019 to help set up the infrastructure. Carr joined full-time to help the company “expand their use of AI and machine learning for target discovery and patient stratification,” he recalled.

The challenge: Siloed research

While the company had experience in using A…

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Nobel-connected startup Shasqi deepens J&J partnership on CAPAC platform

San Francisco-based oncology startup, Shasqi, announced an expansion of its research collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Enterprise Innovation. The partnership centers on Shasqi‘s CAPAC platform, which is an abbreviation for Click-Activated Protodrugs Against Cancer. The platform separates tumor-targeting from the actual drug payload with the aim of maximizing potency while minimizing toxic side effects. 

Shasqi’s CAPAC platform taps click chemistry for tumor targeting

CAPAC makes use of a two-part system: a tumor-targeting agent and a cancer therapeutic. When the protodrug locates the tumor’s targeting agent, click chemistry activates it. The technique joins two discrete molecular components much like a seat belt buckle. More precisely, the system makes use of a chemical reaction to precisely activate the cancer drug at the tumor location. 

The origins of Shasqi trace back to the research of its founder, Dr. José M. Mejía Oneto, who desc…

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Pharma giants in 2023: Breaking down revenue streams by leading product categories

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The pharma sector saw robust revenues across several key therapeutic areas in the second quarter of 2023, with oncology, immunology, and infectious diseases leading the pack. Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda maintained its oncology dominance with sales topping $6 billion, while AbbVie’s Humira regained its crown as the world’s best-selling drug despite new competition. Gilead’s HIV regimen Biktarvy and Merck’s human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil also posted strong growth. Additionally, neurology emerged as an area of expansion for companies like Roche, AbbVie and Biogen.

Our breakdown of 2023 pharma revenue by product categories, based on an analysis of Q2 data from 15 Big Pharma companies, reveals that oncology led the way with revenues surpassing $52 billion. Following closely was immunology with over $23 bil…

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