Daiichi Sankyo

Money Moves

Clinical collaborator with AstraZeneca and Summit on Datroway combinations

AstraZeneca closed its $2 billion Summit Therapeutics investment on October 5: a straight equity purchase with no royalties or milestones attached, according to Biotech Morning. The cash funds trials pairing Summit's ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody that blocks PD-1 and VEGF, with AstraZeneca's antibody-drug conjugates.

Updated Yesterday

New Capabilities

Independently validated the B7-H3 antibody-drug conjugate strategy

Stanford built a drug-discovery operation with 37,000 AI agents and no lab benches. The virtual biotech analyzed 55,984 clinical trials and proposed a lung-cancer therapy that a human pharmaceutical company matched months later.

Updated Oct 11

Rule Changes

Discoverer and co-developer of Enhertu

About 1,000 women a year in England with HER2-low advanced breast cancer became eligible for Enhertu on September 17, when NICE reversed a rejection that had stood since July 2024. Their tumors carry low amounts of a protein called HER2. Access has narrowed since: NHS England prescribes the drug only to patients with one or two prior chemotherapy courses.

Updated Oct 9

New Capabilities

Co-developer and originator of the ADC technology

Merck and Daiichi Sankyo withdrew their US application for ifinatamab deruxtecan, an experimental antibody-drug conjugate for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, an aggressive disease that has resisted most new treatments. The FDA had told the companies their Phase 2 data were not enough to support accelerated approval, and the bid was pulled on September 25.

Updated Sep 29

New Capabilities

Originator of trastuzumab deruxtecan; holder of the FDA approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu for two new uses in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer in May 2026. The drug, already a standard for advanced disease, now enters the window where the goal is cure, not control.

Updated May 18