Lantern Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharma company using its RADR artificial intelligence platform to advance cancer drug development, is launching the development of its ADC (Antibody Drug Conjugate) program through an evaluation and potential development agreement with Califia Pharma, along with other key internal development and computational initiatives.
 
Lantern will leverage the linker library, conjugation processes and payloads, including its own DNA damage causing compounds, LP-100 and LP-184, for development as ADC-based therapies for a range of solid tumors and blood cancers. Lantern plans to use its RADR platform to help determine the cancer types, targets, and cancer biomarker signatures most likely to respond to and benefit from this ADC approach.
 
According to industry analysts, the global ADC cancer therapy market is expected to exceed $10 billion by 2026, and $15 billion by 2030, driven by innovations in protein targeting, linker technologies and conjugation processes.
 
ADCs bring together the ability to target specific antibodies on specific cancer cells and then link that antibody targeting capability to delivering specific potent molecules or toxic payloads to the targeted cancer cell. ADCs are an emerging class of highly potent drugs that have seen five FDA approvals over the last two years.
 
The ADC program will begin immediately and initially focus on evaluating Califia’s novel, patented linker technologies with DNA damaging small molecules, including LP-100 and LP-184, in select solid tumors. Lantern also expects to use RADR® to guide the selection and prioritization of certain tumors and cancer subtypes and also to uncover cancer sub-types where there is significant unmet patient need. The ADC development program will be optimizing target indications and design during 2021, with plans to launch IND and clinical programs in 2022.