AstraZeneca-Daiichi Sankyo Enhertu collaboration (2019)
AstraZeneca paid Daiichi Sankyo $6.9 billion, then the industry's largest antibody-drug conjugate deal, to co-develop and co-commercialize trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu), a HER2-targeting ADC. AstraZeneca gained commercial rights outside Japan.
Enhertu won approvals in breast, lung, and gastric cancers and became a blockbuster, cementing AstraZeneca's ADC strategy.
The deal validated ADCs as a core oncology pillar and showed AstraZeneca's willingness to make large bets on licensed assets.
The Summit investment repeats the Enhertu playbook — a big upfront payment to secure a drug that becomes the backbone of a franchise — now extending it to pair ADCs with a bispecific immunotherapy.
