Shasqi is a biotechnology company based in San Francisco, California.[1][2] The company is known for developing click chemistry-based therapies to treat cancer. Their targeting approach is designed to activate powerful cancer therapies at the desired location in the body (e.g. the tumor), thereby minimizing side effects of powerful cancer treatments.[3][4][5][6] Shasqi is the first to use click chemistry in humans.[7][8][9]
Shasqi was founded in 2015 after participating in Y Combinator’s program.[10][11] The company was named after the shasqi, or chasqui, runners that distributed messages and goods across the Inca empire by running the Inca trails.[12] The need for Shasqi's mission came from the realization that only 1%–2% of the total dose of medicine given to a patient reaches its desired target in the body. José M. Mejía Oneto wondered if there was a better way to tell drugs where to go in the body.[5] Mejia Oneto started exploring click chemistry for this purpose, met Carolyn Bertozzi at a research conference in 2014 and decided to launch the company.[5]
Shasqi began focusing exclusively on oncology in 2018.[14] The company developed a platform known as CAPAC (Click Activated Protodrugs Against Cancer), which is designed to localize cancer therapies at the tumor.[3][4] The platform's lead asset, SQ3370, is recorded as the first use of click chemistry in the human body.[4][5][7][8][16] This investigational product enables the activation of a chemotherapy medication, Doxorubicin, at the tumor site while reducing systemic side effects.[17][18][19][20] The CAPAC technology uses the tetrazine ligation to localize cancer therapies at the tumor site.[21][22][16]
Phase 1 of the SQ3370 clinical trial using the company's CAPAC technology, began in 2019.[23] Shasqi has presented interim Phase 1 results for SQ3370 in advanced solid tumors showing the total dose of doxorubicin administered to the tumor site was 12 times the conventional dose, without the myelosuppression and cardiac toxicity expected from those dose levels.[24] Shasqi advanced the SQ3370 program to a Phase 2 clinical trial in 2022 testing the safety and efficacy of SQ3370 in patients with solid tumors who have never received a dose of doxorubicin.[5][25]