Shasqi Presents Trial-in-progress and Preclinical Posters at SITC 2020

- Shasqi presents two posters on their lead candidate SQ3370 at SITC 2020 -

Shasqi presents two posters on their lead candidate, SQ3370, at The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting.

In their trial-in-progress poster, Shasqi presents a first-in-human phase I study for their lead candidate SQ3370, a click activated protodrug therapy, in patients with advanced solid tumors. SQ3370 is the first click chemistry-based treatment to be used in humans. The study SQ3370-001 is currently enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors in the United States and Australia (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT04106492).

In another poster, Shasqi presents preclinical data on SQ3370. The findings show that SQ3370 induces a dose-dependent, sustained local and systemic anti-tumor response in two dual-tumor syngeneic mouse models. Additional pharmacological outcomes in the data suggest an immune mediated mechanism which could be further enhanced by checkpoint blockers. The treatment also demonstrated a favorable toxicity profile as it did not induce body weight losses, even at the highest administered dose.

The trial-in-progress poster presentation can be found here, and the abstract can be found here.

The preclinical poster presentation can be found here, and the abstract can be found here.

CAPAC™ and SQ3370

SQ3370 utilizes Shasqi’s proprietary Click Activated Protodrugs Against Cancer (CAPAC™) platform, a click chemistry-based approach that activates cancer drugs at a specific tumor with minimal systemic toxicity. The platform utilizes the biocompatible chemical reaction between an attenuated trans-cyclooctene-modified protodrug and a tetrazine-modified biopolymer. The biopolymer is injected into the target tumor lesion, where it precisely captures and activates an infused protodrug. Unlike targeted therapies, the CAPAC™ platform is agnostic to tumor characteristics that can vary from patient to patient, such as biomarker expression and enzymatic activity. CAPAC™ is highly modular and can be applied to a wide variety of cancer therapeutics.

SQ3370 consists of 2 components, SQL70 biopolymer and SQP33 protodrug. SQL70 is a tetrazine-modified sodium hyaluronate biopolymer which functions by activating the protodrug inside the body and does not contain a therapeutically active ingredient. SQP33 is a trans-cyclooctene (TCO)-modified protodrug of Doxorubicin (Dox) with attenuated cytotoxic activity.