Carrying on the century-long legacy of a strength in science & technology forged by its predecessors, Daiichi Sankyo continues its quest to create innovative pharmaceuticals.

Science & Technology

Daiichi Sankyo Group has high-quality science and technology cultivated over years of operation as a drug discovery-oriented company. We will continue to seek sustainable growth of the Group by leveraging our science and technology, creating innovative pharmaceuticals on an ongoing basis, and thereby meeting unmet medical needs.

Strong R&D DNA Cultivated Over Years of Operation as a Drug Discovery-Oriented Company

Ever since its founding, we have aimed to be a drug discovery-oriented company originating from Japan and focused on in-house drug discovery. During the course of our journey to this end, we have delivered breakthrough proprietarily developed products to patients around the world. Utilizing this strong R&D DNA, honed and cultivated over years of operation, we are committed to the development of innovative pharmaceuticals that will change SOC.*
*SOC (Standard of Care): Universally applied best treatment practice in today’s medical science

Cutting-Edge Science & Technology to Create Innovative Pharmaceuticals

Our Strength in Oncology

In alignment with our 2025 Vision “Global Pharma Innovator with Competitive Advantage in Oncology”, our mission in oncology area is to leverage our world-class, innovative science and push beyond traditional thinking in order to create meaningful treatments for patients with cancer. We are dedicated to transforming science into value for patients, and this sense of obligation informs everything we do. Daiichi Sankyo’s Proprietary Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Technologies.

Our HER2-targeted ADC was created through Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary science and technology. The antibody portion of this drug was created by applying the antibody research and protein engineering capability of the former Sankyo, while the drug payload and linker were born out of the research capabilities of the former Daiichi Pharmaceutical. In order to examine the benefits and issues of the preceding ADCs and solve these issues, our researchers screened and optimized combinations of antibodies, linkers, and payloads to ultimately produce the technology we have now. We believe that Daiichi Sankyo’s ADCs have been established successfully as a platform technology where a linker and payload can be combined with many different antibodies. There are currently seven ADC projects.

Diverse Modality Technologies

We are working on the development and utilization of advanced modality technologies for the creation of innovative pharmaceuticals. We are enhancing our ability to create novel products by utilizing diverse and innovative modality technologies, such as next-generation ADCs, nucleic acid drugs, gene therapy, cell therapy, LNP-mRNA, and sugar chain modification.

 

Powerful Research Engines

In-house drug discovery that leads to business expansion requires researchers with a high degree of specialization and expertise based on a wealth of experience. Over the years, we have established a working culture of sharing know-how and deliverables acquired by individual researchers and refining the deliverables. These efforts by our researchers have improved our scientific assessment capabilities, which provide the source of our organizational power. We have also fostered a corporate climate to freely exchange views in scientific discussions, regardless of expertise, or position. This culture and corporate climate encourage the pursuit of innovations and research for the creation of innovative pharmaceuticals.

Collaboration with Academic Institutions (Open Innovation Activities)

With the aim of efficiently and continuously creating innovative pharmaceuticals that will transform the SOC, we are undertaking in-house drug discovery and many other initiatives, including expanding its external drug development network and ensuring diverse sources of innovation. As an example, we discovered the anti-ALK2 antibody DS-6016 through the research collaboration with Professor Katagiri at Saitama Medical University in our open competition grant program TaNeDS.
We have been preparing for the start of clinical studies on DS-6016 as a treatment for a rare disease known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), with the support of AMED’s CiCLE program.

Know more about our Science & Technology

Global Organization & Talent

As a global company, we have global human resources with extensive experience, who serve as key players within a diverse global organization. We will continue to work on sustainable growth by capitalizing on the strengths of our global organization and talent, which form the foundation for value creation.

Proactive Acquisition of Global Talent and Development of Future Leaders 

We aim for an environment where optimal human resources can achieve success as leaders, regardless of their age or nationality. To this end, we actively acquire and promote human resources with a broad range of experience from both inside and outside of the Daiichi Sankyo Group. We provide leadership candidates with stretch goals, challenging tasks, and opportunities for overseas transfers and study programs. In addition, we develop their leadership skills and ability to make decisions from a global perspective, through each layer of leadership development training. 

Presence in Japan

We provide information on healthcare and pharmaceutical products with integrity to healthcare professionals, and we are recognized as a trusted partner in response to that. We will continue to drive sustainable growth by further enhancing our presence in Japan, established through our top-class sales capabilities and ongoing efforts to deliver high-quality pharmaceuticals. This presence in our home market in turn helps us to create value and carry out our Purpose worldwide.

Business Model for Sustainable Growth

By continually launching and expanding the sales of proprietarily developed products, we work to grow the innovative pharmaceuticals*1 business with a broad portfolio. At the same time, we utilize Daiichi Sankyo Group’s superb sales capabilities to acquire licenses for promising products in order to sustain a virtuous cycle that drives further growth. Through this process, we have maintained the No.1 place in terms of pharmaceutical revenue in Japan for four consecutive years*2.
*1 Pharmaceuticals protected during the exclusivity period granted by patents or reexamination period
*2 Based on survey conducted by Encise Inc.

Superb Sales Capabilities

The Daiichi Sankyo Group works to meet the wide-ranging needs of healthcare professionals with a multichannel approach.*1 As a result, we have been ranked No. 1 for MR evaluation from healthcare professions for eight consecutive years.*2 In addition, thanks to our contentrich training programs, all of our MRs have passed the MR certificate test for ten consecutive years.
*1 MR activities and utilizing of lectures, web seminars, Internet and other methods
*2 Based on survey conducted by INTAGE Healthcare Inc.