George Nakayama, president and chief executive officer of Daiichi Sankyo Co., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, March 29, 2019. AstraZeneca Plc forged its biggest deal in more than a decade, agreeing to pay as much as $6.9 billion to Daiichi Sankyo to buy into a promising Japanese cancer treatment as part of its push to become a global oncology powerhouse.
Daiichi's drug, also known as DS-8201, targets the HER2 protein, a major trigger of uncontrolled cell growth in about 20% of breast cancers, where Roche has been a pioneer with its ageing $7bn-a-year best-seller Herceptin. "Over the last four years oncology has been focused on pipeline revitalisation … We feel that we have re-emerged and now our sights shift towards true leadership in the oncology space," said Dave Fredrickson, AstraZeneca's head of oncology.
"$1.35bn upfront plus significant future milestones likely necessitates blockbuster peak sales to deliver a return," said Jefferies analyst Peter Welford, using the industry term for drugs with more than $1bn in annual sales."The upfront payment is particularly large. It's a sign that AstraZeneca assumes the drug will become mainstream in the next generation," said Takashi Akahane, a senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
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