When the Precision Medicine Initiative was announced by President Obama in 2015, he said: “delivering the right treatments, at the right time, every time, to the right person.” As the next heralded breakthrough in healthcare, simply put it is the ultra-tailored therapy.
Personalization of therapy has always been a practice to a certain extent, however, the combination of technologies to generate patient-derived data, genomic medicine and computer science has added the PRECISION to make it personal.
This time in the Medness Focus edition we will talk about a young pharma company, Lantern Pharma, that could be a game changer in the field of precision medicine. How? Read on to know more!
Lantern Pharma: Personalizing the drug pipeline
Problem to address: Re-purposing of validated, de-risked clinical stage anti-cancer drugs that are discontinued for drug development
Reasons for failure of anti-cancer drugs in pipeline:
- heterogeneity of cancers,
- multidrug resistance,
- inability of one drug to treat some but not all patients
Technology:
- Personalized precision drug programs using advanced genomics and artificial intelligence (AI).
- Repurposing of deserted late-stage clinical drugs that were successful in only a subset of patient population
- AI- A proprietary machine learning algorithm called Rescue Algorithm for Drug Repurposing (RADR)
- AI approach Connecting and Analyzing Clinical Trial and Patient Genomics Data to Identify relevant Biomarkers and predict favorable patient responders.
Step 1. Combine Clinical Trial Data with Lab genomic Analysis of Patient Samples
Step 2 a. Data Analysis from Clinical Trails and Patient Genomics
Step 2 b. Artificial Intelligence to connect the dots between drug candidates and best responders in a patient population
Step 3. Identify Biomarkers
Step 4. Identify Responders
Drug Pipeline:
- Tavocept (LP-300) targeting Non-small cell lung cancer
- Irofulven-1 (LP-100) targeting Hormone-refractory prostate cancer
- Irofulven-2 (LP-184) targeting ovarian cancer
Opinions of Stakeholders:
“Within the next six years, the precision medicine market is expected to reach nearly $88 billion and has the potential to impact all cancer patients. Drug rescue and repurposing in oncology is a high-growth segment and expected to contribute to as much as 25 to 30 percent of new therapeutic approvals and significantly reduce development costs,” Arun Asaithambi (Co-founder and Director) said. (link)
https://twitter.com/arunace4u/status/812858707725975552
“Lantern Pharma is leading a wave of innovation in cancer treatment that we believe will bring the best therapies to patients who are most likely to respond,” said Clay Heighten, M.D., founding partner of GPG Ventures. (link)
Dr. Clay Heighten speaking at the first SoPE event at @HWildCatters tonight! #health #physicians #dfw pic.twitter.com/3F9RkBxul9
— Health 2.0 Dallas (@Health20Dallas) April 24, 2014
“We are thrilled to partner with Lantern in order to advance the clinical development of Irofulven, and to advance a new paradigm in cancer drug development by designing and conducting clinical trials around a targeted population of patients identified, via MPI’s diagnostic platform, as the patients most likely to respond to a given drug based on their tumor biology. said Professor Peter Buhl Jensen, M.D., CEO of Oncology Venture and MPI. (link)
Peter Buhl Jensen presenterar Oncology Venture https://t.co/DHhqf1QbE4
— I_Was_🇸🇪 (@I_was_Sweden) March 29, 2017
“The more clinical and genomic data that is analyzed, the ‘smarter’ the AI becomes, which will lead to additional breakthroughs. We are very excited to assist Lantern in its pursuit to re-invent cancer drug development using advanced AI and genomics. This partnership accelerates the development of therapies at a faster and more efficient rate than ever before,” explains Anand A., Chief Executive Officer of Intuition Systems. (link)
Latest news: “Biotech Startup Lantern Pharma Raises $3.7M to Accelerate Cancer Drug Approval Process”
Lantern #Pharma Raises $3.7 M in Series A Financinghttps://t.co/pMCC4ruUr3#Startup #Funding pic.twitter.com/jgkrqQgGIY
— Aranca Valuation (@Aranca_Val) May 5, 2017
Who are the other players in the Precision Medicine Start-up market segment and where does Lantern stand?
We compiled a list of similar companies (in USA) who are working in the field of precision medicine and could have matching interests with Lantern (Disclaimer: this is not an exhaustive list and the opinions are based on the information available on the companies’ websites as on 05/05/2017)
| Company name | Target areas | Competition for Lantern? |
| Syapse | Precision medicine data platform for health providers | Probably |
| GenomOncology | Translating next generation sequencing data into actionable information | Probably |
| Centrillion Biosciences | Genomics and DNA analyses | Partially |
| 4D Healthware | Patient engagement software through connected-data approach | Partially |
| Cellular Dynamics International | Stem cell technologies for drug development and personalized medicine | Partially |
| NeoDiagnostix | Combines advanced diagnostics with therapeutics, enabling clinicians plan treatment | Partially |
| Translational Software | Converting genomic data into actionable, relevant intelligence | Partially |
| Advanced Cell Diagnostics | Diagnostic tests for personalized medicine | Unlikely |
| Epic Sciences | Early cancer detection systems | Unlikely |
| Ignyta | New drug discovery efforts in oncology | Unlikely |
| Eve Biomedical | Low -cost gene sequencing equipment for medical applications | Unlikely |
| Sctheranostics | Drug Discovery efforts on Patient derived cells in cardiology | Unlikely |
| Kuraoncology | New drug discovery efforts in oncology | Unlikely |
| Genoptix | Specialized oncology diagnostic services | Unlikely |
| Precipio Diagnostics | Cancer diagnostics reference laboratory | Unlikely |
| Population Diagnostics | Develop personalized DNA-based diagnostics | Unlikely |
| Blueprint Health | Startup accelerator, and crowdsources genetic and clinical datasets | Unlikely |
| Rosetta Genomics | Discovery, the development and commercialization of diagnostic testing | Unlikely |
| Everist Health | A machine learning technique producing mathematical models for cardiac patients | Unlikely |
| Microarrays | Array-based technologies for biological research, detection and diagnostics, | Unlikely |
| PHIGENIX | Novel molecular therapeutics which target the immune system against cancer. | Unlikely |
| Genomind | Pharmacogenetic laboratory testing for psychiatry | Unlikely |
| Permedly | Connects doctors & personalized medicine solutions via a software platform | Unlikely |
Company website: http://www.lanternpharma.com/
Available jobs
Concluding lines
Lantern’s approach will benefit not only those who are determined to be likely responders but also those patients who are deemed non-responders who will be reprieved from the costs, false hopes, and potential side effects of enduring a futile treatment. In addition, a lot of research dollars spent on the drug discovery efforts from the taxpayers’ money can be recovered by re-discovering their use in smaller subsets of patients.
Featured image source: Adam Simpson
GIF source: giphy.com
Infographics: Created using canva.com
References:
- https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601843/precision-medicine-pioneer/
- http://thelongandshort.org/life-death/precision-medicine
- http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7p3zs6/precision
- http://www.healthworkscollective.com/eborukhovich/328623/tech-and-precision-medicine-29-companies-who-will-lead-charge
- http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005651/en/Global-Precision-Medicine-Market-2015-2022—Key
- http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2017/02/28/the-future-of-precision-medicine-great-promise-significant-challenges/
- https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/25/precision-medicine-leaders/
Disclaimer: This blog is strictly for news and information. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Copyright: The contents of Medness is the copyright of PhD Career Support Group for STEM PhDs (A US Non Profit 501(c)3 is an initiative of the alumni of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The primary aim of this group is to buildup NETWORK among scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.)
