Lantern Pharma Announces Establishing an A.I. Center of Excellence in India to Industrialize the RADR® Platform and Accelerate Global Development Opportunities with BioPharma Companies
- The A.I. Center of Excellence is planned to be based in Bengaluru and focus on large scale data-engineering, development and refinement of state-of-the-art ML-ready disease models and integration with global biopharma customers and partners.
- This strategic initiative positions Lantern to scale its proven AI capabilities and platform across oncology and into new disease categories, meeting growing biopharma partner demand.
- Hiring for initial positions has already been initiated and Lantern anticipates that expansion and hiring will be cash flow neutral to the Company.
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lantern Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRN), a pioneer in AI-driven precision oncology and computational therapeutic development, today announced the establishment of an A.I. Center of Excellence and Advanced Agentic Labs in Bengaluru, India. This strategic initiative represents a critical inflection point in Lantern's evolution—transitioning from pioneering AI-enabled drug discovery in cancer to industrializing those capabilities at global scale for the broader drug development community.


As pharmaceutical companies increasingly shift from AI experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment, Lantern's Bengaluru center will serve as the company's global scale-up center for the AI platform, providing expanded computational capacity, specialized technical talent, and follow-the-sun development cycles that enable rapid iteration and deployment of advanced AI modules and functionality. The AI center of excellence capabilities will support both Lantern's internal pipeline and growing roster of pharmaceutical and academic collaborators globally.
The center will expand the technical depth and throughput of Lantern's proprietary RADR® AI platform, which currently leverages hundreds of billions of oncology-focused data points and an expanding library of sophisticated machine learning algorithms and curated disease models and knowledge objects. Critically, the initiative will accelerate development of Lantern's specialized large language model (LLM) designed to assess, optimize, and generate novel molecular candidates across diverse therapeutic applications—translating complex computational insights into precision-targeted drug development strategies. Complementing this, Lantern will expand its specialized large quantitative models (LQMs) designed to aid in assessing and optimizing chemical and molecular features, which will provide generative bioinformatic and medicinal chemistry reasoning and outputs.
Phased Strategic Deployment: Systematic Scaling & Expanding Beyond Oncology
The AI Center of Excellence will deploy capabilities across two strategic phases designed to systematically expand Lantern's computational infrastructure while maintaining an overall cash neutral impact to the Company’s financials.
Phase 1: Industrializing AI-Driven Cancer Drug Development
Initial operations will focus on expanding Lantern's new multi-agentic AI platform for oncology—autonomous algorithmic systems that orchestrate complex tasks from data aggregation and predictive modeling through biomarker discovery and clinical trial optimization. This phase emphasizes scaling proven capabilities that led Lantern to three molecules in clinical trials and the development of a CNS cancer focused subsidiary, Starlight Therapeutics, with even greater efficiency:
- Advancing the specialized LLM and LQM for molecular assessment, optimization, and de novo generation across diverse cancer subtypes – with an increasing focus on rare cancers.
- Expanding molecular feature prediction and optimization, including blood-brain barrier permeability predictions for potential CNS-penetrant therapies.
- Refining combination regimen design and synergy prediction frameworks in oncology and rare cancers.
- Deploying enhanced biomarker signature discovery and patient stratification modules that will help in the design of stratified and streamlined clinical trials.
- Integrating multi-omic data architectures across internal programs and partnered collaborative initiatives.
Phase 2: Multi-Disease Expansion and Global Revenue Acceleration
Building on established oncology capabilities, Phase 2 will extend RADR® platform applications into inflammation, immunology, and neurodegenerative diseases through structured collaborations with global biopharma partners. This phase emphasizes systematic revenue generation opportunities while expanding therapeutic reach:
- Developing disease-specific AI modules for conditions including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease.
- Scaling revenue-generating initiatives with pharmaceutical companies across the United States, Europe, and Japan.
- Deploying tailored molecular optimization frameworks for non-oncology therapeutic programs.
- Expanding platform capabilities to responsibly integrate under-represented patient populations and real-world clinical data.
"Lantern was founded on the conviction that artificial intelligence and data-driven methodologies can fundamentally redefine drug discovery paradigms," said Panna Sharma, President & CEO of Lantern Pharma. "Our AI Center of Excellence represents the industrialization of that vision—scaling proven RADR® capabilities to serve the growing number of pharmaceutical partners seeking precision, data-guided therapies across oncology and beyond with increasingly more aggressive timelines. This initiative strategically positions Lantern at the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry's transformation from computational experimentation to systematic, AI-powered therapeutic development that addresses critical unmet patient needs globally. Our approach simultaneously plays a central role in containing development costs and increasing R&D efficiency."
"We have reached a defining inflection point where artificial intelligence, genomic science, and clinical data are converging to fundamentally transform drug discovery from empirical experimentation to systematic, data-driven precision," said Dr. Vijay Chandru, Board Member of Lantern Pharma since 2019, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and longtime mentor to life sciences and technology ventures in India. "Bengaluru represents one of the rare global ecosystems possessing the complete technical infrastructure required to lead this transformation: world-class AI and data engineering talent, a rapidly maturing biotech research community, and proven computational capabilities at scale. Lantern's establishment of its AI Center of Excellence here is strategically significant—it demonstrates that Bengaluru has evolved beyond pilot-phase experimentation and is now positioned to industrialize AI-powered therapeutic development at global scale. By bringing the proven RADR® oncology platform into this ecosystem and leveraging Bangalore's exceptional technical depth, Lantern creates a foundation for systematic acceleration across cancer therapeutics and, ultimately, multiple disease categories where computational precision can fundamentally reshape patient outcomes. This represents execution at scale, not incremental innovation."
"The Bengaluru hub will serve as a central scale-up center for our AI engine, creating unprecedented operational leverage and research efficiency," continued Sharma. "By accessing India's exceptional ecosystem of AI engineers, data scientists, and computational biologists, we're building infrastructure that enables continuous development cycles, accelerated deployment timelines, and cost-effective scaling of our computational capabilities. The center positions Lantern to develop and deploy advanced agentic AI modules at the speed and scale our pharmaceutical partners demand, while maintaining the scientific rigor and precision-focused methodologies that define our approach. This is about systematic execution—translating complex computational insights into tangible therapeutic solutions that address critical unmet medical needs across multiple disease categories where data-driven precision creates transformative patient outcomes and redefines what's possible in modern drug discovery."
Strategic Talent Expansion and Advanced Infrastructure Development
Lantern is immediately commencing recruitment for AI engineers, data scientists, computational biologists, and machine learning specialists. The company anticipates building a high-performance technical team integrated seamlessly with Lantern's operations in the United States, creating continuous development environments that maximize productivity and accelerate time-to-deployment for innovative AI capabilities. The company expects immediate tangible results while maintaining cash neutrality during Q1 2026.
The center will operate as a cloud-native development environment with dedicated infrastructure for advanced model training, rigorous validation protocols, and rapid deployment frameworks. The planned core technical capabilities will include:
- Large-scale data engineering, data curation and multi-omic integration pipelines
- Specialized AI model development for molecular optimization and predictive toxicology
- State-of-the-art ML-ready disease models spanning oncology and other emerging therapeutic areas
- Computational chemistry and systems biology platforms
- Partner collaboration sandbox environments for co-development initiatives
- Structured knowledge transfer programs and continuous technical training
- Integration architecture connecting U.S. and Indian operations for the potential of follow-the-sun development cycles
Positioning for Global Leadership in AI-Driven Drug Discovery
By establishing dedicated international AI development capacity, Lantern strategically positions itself at the forefront of pharmaceutical companies industrializing artificial intelligence for therapeutic discovery and development. The AI Center of Excellence in India represents a long-term commitment to meeting escalating demand from biopharma partners while maintaining the agility and systematic innovation capabilities that have distinguished Lantern's computational approach to precision medicine.
The company is actively expanding its network of pharmaceutical and academic collaborators interested in leveraging RADR® and Lantern's specialized AI modules across therapeutic areas where patients urgently need more precise, data-guided therapies. These collaborative partnerships will extend the core capabilities of RADR® beyond oncology while generating multiple revenue pathways through licensing arrangements, co-development programs, and specialized AI service engagements with global biopharma companies.
Lantern is also exploring strategic opportunities for the center to collaborate with regional academic institutions, hospitals, and technology partners in India and globally. These partnerships aim to responsibly incorporate under-represented patient populations and real-world clinical data into RADR® and future AI modules—improving model generalizability and enabling drug development strategies that better reflect global genetic and clinical diversity, ultimately translating computational advantages into broader therapeutic impact across diverse patient populations worldwide.
Investor and Analyst Day: AI Center of Excellence and Major Platform Rollout
Lantern Pharma will host an Investor and Analyst Day in New York City on January 22, 2026 at 4:00 PM ET, focusing on the AI Center of Excellence strategic initiative and announcing the initial major platform rollout. Lantern expects to demonstrate in a live environment the initial tools and multi-agentic system developed by Lantern focused on highly underserved needs in cancer. The event will provide comprehensive insights into Lantern's AI industrialization strategy, technical capabilities of the expanded RADR® platform, phased deployment roadmap, and strategic implications for biopharma partnerships and revenue generation. Additional details and registration information will be made available at www.lanternpharma.com. For an invite to the AI investor and analyst event, please contact ir@lanternpharma.com with your contact details.
About Lantern Pharma
Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and genomic data to streamline oncology drug development and bring precision therapies to patients who need them. The company's proprietary RADR® AI platform integrates hundreds of billions of data points to identify biomarkers, predict drug response, and design smarter clinical trials. Lantern's clinical-stage pipeline includes LP-184, LP-284, and LP-300, each targeting genomically defined patient populations. For more information, visit www.lanternpharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements relating to: future events or our future financial performance; the establishment and anticipated capabilities of the AI Center of Excellence, the potential advantages of our RADR® platform in identifying drug candidates and patient populations that are likely to respond to a drug candidate; potential partnerships and collaborations; revenue generating initiatives; cash-flow neutrality expectations; estimates regarding clinical trial timing and patient enrollment; our research and development efforts of our internal drug discovery programs and the utilization of our RADR® platform to streamline the drug development process; our intention to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and genomic data to streamline and transform the pace, risk and cost of oncology drug discovery and development and to identify patient populations that would likely respond to a drug candidate; estimates regarding patient populations, potential markets and potential market sizes; sales estimates for our drug candidates and our plans to discover and develop drug candidates and to maximize their commercial potential by advancing such drug candidates ourselves or in collaboration with others.
Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including, without limitation, statements that use words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “model,” “objective,” “aim,” “upcoming,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions) should be considered forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements, such as (i) the risk that we may not be able to secure sufficient future funding when needed and as required to advance and support our existing and planned clinical trials and operations, (ii) the risk that observations in preclinical studies and early or preliminary observations in clinical studies do not ensure that later observations, studies and development will be consistent or successful, (iii) the risk that our research and the research of our collaborators may not be successful, (iv) the risk that we may not be successful in licensing potential candidates or in completing potential partnerships and collaborations, (v) the risk that none of our product candidates has received FDA marketing approval, and we may not be able to successfully initiate, conduct, or conclude clinical testing for or obtain marketing approval for our product candidates, (vi) the risk that no drug product based on our proprietary RADR® AI platform has received FDA marketing approval or otherwise been incorporated into a commercial product, and (vii) those other factors set forth in the Risk Factors section in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 27, 2025.
You may access our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 under the investor SEC filings tab of our website at http://www.lanternpharma.com/ or on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov/. Given these risks and uncertainties, we can give no assurances that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, or that any other results or events projected or contemplated by our forward-looking statements will in fact occur, and we caution investors not to place undue reliance on these statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release represent our judgment as of the date hereof, and, except as otherwise required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in our expectations.
Contacts
Investor Contact
Investor Relations
ir@lanternpharma.com
+1-972-277-1136
Editor Details
-
Company:
- Businesswire