AstraZeneca entered into a new global development and commercialization agreement with Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo Company for a promising chemotherapy drug.
The agreement has a potential value of $6 billion.
AstraZeneca employs about 1,500 in administrative and logistics activities in northern Delaware. The company is based in the United Kingdom.
AstraZeneca will pay Daiichi Sankyo an upfront payment of $1 billion in staged payments. AstraZeneca will pay additional conditional amounts of up to $1 billion for the successful achievement of regulatory approvals and up to $4 billion for sales-related milestones.
One drug, DS-1062 is currently in development for the treatment of multiple tumors that occur with breast and lung cancer.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca CEO said: “We see significant potential in this antibody drug conjugate in lung as well as in breast and other cancers that commonly express TROP2. We are delighted to enter this new collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo and to build on the successful launch of Enhertu to further expand our pipeline and leadership in Oncology. We now have six potential blockbusters in Oncology with more to come in our early and late pipelines.”
Using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary technology, DS-1062 is designed to deliver chemotherapy selectively to cancer cells and to reduce systemic exposure. A comprehensive development program with DS-1062 is planned globally.
The companies will jointly develop and commercialize DS-1062 worldwide, except in Japan where Daiichi Sankyo will maintain exclusive rights. AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo will share equally development and commercialization expenses as well as profits relating to DS-1062 worldwide, except for Japan where Daiichi Sankyo will be responsible for such costs and will pay AstraZeneca royalties.
