Daiichi Sankyo invests $1.9B to boost ADC production globally

To meet the growing worldwide demand for oncology products, Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo plans to spend approximately 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion) to expand its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) production facilities in Asia, Europe, and the United States as it looks to mitigate the potential risk of pharma-specific tariffs.

Daiichi Sankyo’s planned capital expenditures on ADC manufacturing sites in China, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. are detailed in the company’s annual securities report and were first reported by Japanese business and economic newspaper Nikkei Asia.

Among the investments, Daiichi Sankyo has earmarked 140 billion yen ($894 million) for production sites in Munich, Germany — where it currently operates pharmaceutical manufacturing. In Japan, the company will allocate 77 billion yen ($491.7 million) to expand an existing plant in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa.

In its annual securities report, Daiichi Sankyo noted that it is “actively expanding” its business overseas in areas such as pharmaceutical manufacturing and that its global operations are subject to geopolitical risks, including sudden policy changes under the current U.S. administration — such as changes to import tariffs and countermeasures by other countries. As part of its mitigation efforts, the company said it is considering the “possibility of strengthening local production in the U.S.”

Towards that end, Daiichi Sankyo’s existing U.S. operations in Ohio will get an injection of 56 billion yen ($357.8 million) to fund an expansion. In China, Daiichi Sankyo will spend 24 billion yen ($153 million) on a new ADC manufacturing facility in Shanghai that was first announced in late 2024. At the time, the company said the investment “marks a significant milestone in Daiichi Sankyo’s development in China and demonstrates the company’s strong confidence” in the Chinese market.   

“As part of our goal to become a global top 10 company in oncology and bringing at least five antibody-drug conjugates to market by 2030, Daiichi Sankyo has committed to capital investment in manufacturing,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Pharma Manufacturing. “These investments are to expand manufacturing capabilities for currently approved ADCs, including Enhertu and Datroway, along with additional ADCs currently in clinical development.”

Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca started a global collaboration to jointly develop and commercialize Enhertu in 2019 and Datroway in 2020, except in Japan where Daiichi Sankyo maintains exclusive rights for each ADC. Daiichi Sankyo is responsible for the manufacturing and supply of Enhertu and Datroway.

Last month, Enhertu was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation in the U.S. for adult patients with HER2 positive early breast cancer with residual invasive disease in the breast and/or axillary lymph nodes after neoadjuvant treatment and high risk of disease recurrence.

The AstraZeneca-partnered breast cancer therapy is the mainstay of Daiichi Sankyo’s ADC business with the Japanese company expected to remain dominant in oncology while holding the largest global market share in ADCs over the next few years. The company’s ADC portfolio consists of eight ADCs in clinical development.

By 2029, the worldwide market for ADC therapies in oncology is expected to be worth more than $36 billion with Daiichi Sankyo forecasted to generate sales of nearly $11 billion, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.