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Oncology Venture, Lantern Pharma secure ICIP grant for Irofulven in treating metastatic prostate cancer

Oncology Venture, the drug development arm of MPI and Lantern Pharma, has secured an ICIP grant of $800,000 to support the partnership of Medical Prognosis Institute A/S (MPI.CO) (Denmark and Phoenix).

The grant has been given to clinically advance Irofulven for the treatment of metastatic castration resistant prostrate cancer (mCRPC) by utilising a highly predictive biomarker for the drug developed by MPI.

Irofulven is a transcription-coupled repair specific antitumor agent, which has proved itself as a potential candidate for a number of prior clinical trials but has not reached suitable efficacy endpoints. Currently, its rights are held by Lantern.

Oncology Venture (OV) acquires and invests in promising cancer drugs that have previously failed clinical efficacy trials, but which can be repurposed for the right indication and right patients utilising MPI’s DRP(TM) Biomarkers.

Under the partnership, OV and Lantern will employ an Irofulven-specific DRP(TM) biomarker developed by MPI to select and enroll likely responder patients in a targeted Phase 2 trial for the drug in mCRPC (also known as HRMPC). mCRPC is the leading cause of mortality among prostate cancer patients.

The companies have received the USD 800,000 grant, under the Life Sciences International Collaborative Industry Program (ICIP), administered by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC).

The ICIP program encourages and guides commercially promising life science projects undertaken by Massachusetts companies collaborating with a partner in designated foreign countries. Medicon Valley of Denmark is one such designated region where both OV and MPI are based.

The grant is also supported equally by the MLSC and its Danish funding equivalent, the Region Hovedstaden who has Cobis as a lead partner.

Professor Peter Buhl Jensen, M.D., CEO of Oncology Venture and MPI said: "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."

Dr. Arunkumar Asaithambi, Ph.D., CEO of Lantern Pharma, further commented: "This project and grant emphasizes Lantern’s commitment to the development of precision cancer drugs by employing cutting-edge companion diagnostics i.e. MPI’s DRP biomarker to identify and enroll the right patients in order to conduct successful clinical trials with patients that will actually benefit from Irofulven."