Patent ID: 6903084

Claim:
A pharmaceutical composition comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent and a pharmaceutically effective amount of a compound of the formula (II) wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently H or C 1 -C 5 alkyl, and at least one of R 1 and R 2 is H; and the ring system ABCD represents a steroid nucleus, selected from the group consisting of dehydroepiandrosterone, oestrone, 2-OH-oestrone, 7α-OH-oestrone, 2-methoxy-oestrone, 16α-OH-oestrone, 4-OH-oestrone, 16β-OH-oestrone, 6α-OH-oestrone, 2-OH-17β-oestradiol, 6α-OH-17β-oestradiol, 16β-OH-7α-oestradiol, 17β-oestradiol, 2-methoxy-17β-oestradiol, 7α-OH-17β-oestradiol, 16α-OH-17α-oestradiol, 17α-ethinyl-17β-oestradiol, 4-OH-17β-oestradiol, 16α-OH-17α-oestradiol, 17α-oestradiol, oestradiol, 4-OH-oestradiol, 2-OH-oestradiol, 6α-OH-oestradiol, 2-methoxy-oestradiol, 7α-OH-oestradiol, 6α-OH-dehydroepiandrosterone, 16α-OH-dehydroepiandrosterone, 7α-OH-dehydroepiandrosterone, and 16β-OH-dehydroepiandrosterone, wherein said compound is an inhibitor of an enzyme having steroid sulphatase activity (EC 3.1.6.2); and wherein when the sulphamic acid ester group of said compound is replaced with a sulphate group to form a sulphate compound and incubated with a steroid sulphatase enzyme (EC 3.1.6.2) at a pH 7.4 and 37° C. it provides a K m value of less than 50 μM, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.