Daiichi Sankyo rises as it signs another mega-dollar licensing deal

Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568) saw its shares rise more than 4% to 8.712 yen, after it revealed another multi-billion licensing deal, potentially worth $6 billion, with AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN).

The Anglo-Swedish pharma major has entered into a new global development and commercialization agreement with Daiichi Sankyo for DS-1062, the latter’s proprietary trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2)-directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC), currently in Phase I clinical development for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

This agreement represents the second global ADC collaboration between the two companies following a similar deal in March last year worth nearly $7 billion, for Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), which is already approved in advanced breast cancer.