There are roughly 80,000 newly diagnosed bladder cancer cases each year in China and 70-80% are early-stage cancers, otherwise known as non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The current standard care for high-risk patients who failed intravesical therapies is surgical removal of the bladder, which drastically lowers the patient’s quality of life.
Now, Shanghai-based Asieris Pharma is developing an old antibiotic – a methionine aminopeptidase II (MetAP2) inhibitor – as a repurposed...