Overview

With MESUPRON®, WILEX has developed a drug candidate to inhibit the Urokinase Plasminogen Activator (uPA) system. The uPA programme of WILEX can be considered as a promising new non-cytotoxic approach in cancer therapy to specifically block tumour metastasis in solid cancers.

The uPA system has been shown to play a key role in tumour cell invasion and metastasis, as well as in primary tumour growth, of various solid tumours including breast, ovarian, gastric, colon and pancreatic cancer.

WILEX has developed the orally available drug candidate MESUPRON®, as a pro-drug of WX-UK1. The drug candidates in the uPA programme, WX-UK1 and MESUPRON®, are the first inhibitors of uPA in oncology trials worldwide. Eight different clinical trials with WX-UK1 and MESUPRON® in several indications were successfully conducted. MESUPRON® is currently being studied in two Phase II efficacy trials with cancer patients.