Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ:LTRN) reported second-quarter results marked by lower operating expenses, updates across its oncology pipeline and the formation of Open-Medicine AI, a separately structured company intended to commercialize the company’s artificial intelligence platform.
President and CEO Panna Sharma said the company established Open-Medicine AI, or OMAI, in August with commercial licenses and agreements with Lantern. The new entity is currently wholly owned by Lantern and is expected to pursue its own financing, with a longer-term objective of becoming separately listed. Lantern expects to retain full access to the platform for its drug programs and to remain one of OMAI’s largest shareholders.
Open-Medicine AI Strategy
Sharma said Open-Medicine AI will operate the company’s multi-agent AI co-scientist platform, withZeta.ai, in commercial settings. He described the system as an orchestrated group of specialized AI agents focused on functions including literature synthesis, medicinal chemistry, pathway analysis, data curation, portfolio prioritization and clinical-trial development.
The company intends to provide additional information on OMAI’s market opportunity, platform roadmap and commercial model during a dedicated call planned for mid-September. Sharma said Lantern has received interest from pharmaceutical companies in the withZeta.ai platform and that user adoption has been “very sticky” after users access the professional version of the product.
During the question-and-answer session, Sharma said Lantern could explore ways to distribute shares of Open-Medicine AI to Lantern shareholders, though he said those discussions remain ongoing.
LP-300 Lung Cancer Trial Refined
Lantern highlighted updated findings from its Phase II HARMONIC trial of LP-300 in never-smokers with non-small cell lung cancer who progressed after tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. The company reported that, as of a May 11 data cutoff, patients with L858R mutations who completed six cycles of treatment had median progression-free survival of 8.9 months. The analysis included nine patients, three of whom had not progressed at the time of analysis.
Across the full L858R cohort, median progression-free survival was 8.4 months, with a reported hazard ratio of 0.37 and a confidence interval of 0.15 to 0.89. Lantern said more than 70% of L858R patients experienced target lesion reduction and reported a 77% clinical benefit rate.
Sharma cautioned that the results came from small exploratory cohorts that were not powered for statistical significance. However, he said a Cox regression controlling for race, gender and TP53 status identified L858R as an independent predictor of benefit. The company also said safety appeared comparable between four and six treatment cycles, with no additional toxicity observed from longer exposure.
Following a Type C meeting with the FDA, Lantern amended the study to concentrate enrollment on patients with L858R mutations, extend treatment from six cycles to as many as eight cycles and use a single-arm design. The trial is enrolling in the United States and Taiwan. Sharma said the company expects to enroll approximately 15 to 16 additional patients over the next four to six months and may provide another update toward year-end.
LP-184 and Pediatric Program Updates
Lantern also outlined advances for LP-184. In July, the company received European Medicines Agency clearance for an investigator-initiated Phase IB/II trial in advanced bladder cancer at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 39-patient trial will use a dual-biomarker strategy involving PTGR1 overexpression and DNA damage repair deficiency.
The company’s proposed Phase IB/II monotherapy trial of LP-184 in relapsed or refractory triple-negative breast cancer has been cleared by the FDA and is moving toward launch. Lantern expects the study to enroll up to 40 patients across two dose cohorts, followed by a Simon two-stage efficacy assessment.
Lantern also received a notice of allowance for a patient-selection patent involving PTGR1, PTPN14 and ASPH genes in ovarian, liver, kidney and thyroid cancers. Sharma said the company’s prior 63-patient LP-184 study observed tumor reductions among patients with certain DNA repair deficiency gene alterations, including CHEK2, ATM, BRCA1, STK11 and KEAP1.
LP-284 continues to be developed in hematologic malignancies and adult soft-tissue sarcomas, for which Lantern received orphan drug designation earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Lantern’s Starlight Therapeutics program is advancing STAR-001, which combines LP-184 with spironolactone in certain brain cancers. The company said it is working with pediatric oncology consortia to determine a clinical-trial path in rare pediatric cancers, including atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors, hepatoblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and malignant rhabdoid tumors. Sharma said the company is also working to enable compassionate use in certain rare pediatric brain tumors.
Second-Quarter Financial Results
Chief Financial Officer David Margrave said Lantern ended June 30 with approximately $7.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, including $6.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and $0.7 million in marketable securities. That compared with approximately $10.1 million at the end of 2025.
The company received approximately $4.4 million in gross proceeds from a registered direct offering that closed May 14. Margrave said raising additional capital remains a priority, and Lantern plans to pursue capital raises, collaborations and other opportunities to extend its operating runway.
- Research and development expense fell 42% year over year to approximately $1.8 million.
- General and administrative expense increased 8% to approximately $1.7 million.
- Loss from operations declined 25% to approximately $3.5 million, from approximately $4.7 million a year earlier.
- Net loss totaled approximately $7.1 million, or $0.57 per share, compared with $4.3 million, or $0.40 per share, in the prior-year quarter.
Margrave said the net loss included approximately $3.6 million in warrant-related expense connected to the May financing. The expense was largely non-cash and reflected an increase in the fair value of warrants as Lantern’s stock price rose between the May 14 issuance date and June 30.
As of June 30, Lantern had 12.76 million shares of common stock outstanding. The company reported no activity under its at-the-market sales facility during the quarter.
About Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ:LTRN)
Lantern Pharma, Inc is a clinical-stage oncology company leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to accelerate the discovery and development of targeted cancer therapies. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Lantern Pharma’s proprietary RADR® platform integrates large-scale genomic, transcriptomic and chemical data to identify novel drug candidates and predict patient populations most likely to benefit from treatment.
The company’s pipeline focuses on molecules designed to address cancers with high unmet medical need.
