Daiichi Sankyo aims to transform its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) leadership into a leading position in global oncology. In a new five-year business plan released on Monday, the Japanese drugmaker outlined a roadmap to become one of the world’s top five oncology companies by 2035 and a massive 200 billion yen ($1.3 billion) cost optimization plan.
First, it expects its revenue to reach more than 3 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) by 2030 (PDF), 2.3 trillion yen of which will come from its oncology portfolio, which it hopes to expand with more than 20 new indications across five medicines.
In fiscal 2025, Daiichi achieved total revenue of 2.1 trillion yen, far exceeding the initial target of 1.6 trillion yen set for 2021, largely due to a contribution of 954 billion yen ($6.1 billion) from anti-cancer drugs from two ADCs, Enhertz and Datroway, partnered with AstraZeneca.
More than 240,000 patients have been treated with two ADCs. First, by 2035, the company aims to reach more than 700,000 new eligible patients per year with its cancer drugs.
Enhertu and Datroway will continue to be our primary growth drivers over the next five years. However, three more ADCs based on the company’s DXd platform are expected to come to market during the period. These include ifinatamab deruxtecan (I-DXd), a B7-H3-directed antibody drug conjugate in partnership with Merck & Co., which is awaiting FDA action by October 10, 2026, for previously treated advanced-stage small cell lung cancer.
The other two candidates are the CDH6-directed raldotag deruxtecan (R-DXd), which is being evaluated in ovarian cancer, and the HER3-directed patritumab deruxtecan (HER3 DXd), which is currently being tested in a phase 3 trial in HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer following the withdrawal of an FDA application for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.
First, we are developing other DXd ADCs, including DS-3939, which targets tumor-associated MUC1, and DS-3790, which targets CD37. According to the company’s numbers, both have the potential to be big hits.
Taken together, Daiichi expects peak sales of DXd technology alone to exceed 3 trillion yen ($19.1 billion).
To drive future growth, Daiichi is developing new proprietary technologies that have the potential to match the impact of DXd, and some beyond oncology.
On the ADC side, the first is devising next-generation cytotoxic payloads to overcome resistance to DXd, and further efforts to design novel tumor-selective antibodies are underway, with plans to enter human studies in 2027.
Another type of payload that Daiichi is working on seeks to activate the immune system through the STING pathway and achieve long-term immune memory. A Phase 1 trial of such a candidate, called DS3610, is underway.
The first is looking beyond ADCs and focusing on multispecific antibodies, targeted proteolytic agents, and small interfering RNA platforms. According to Daiichi, these technologies are already in clinical trials or are scheduled to begin Phase 1 trials this year.
Based on current timelines, Daiichi expects to identify promising technology signals around 2030, and the resulting products are expected to begin contributing to the company’s business and top-five oncology ambitions around 2035, Daiichi’s principal investigator, Dr. Yuki Abe, said on a conference call Monday.
Overall, Daiichi will allocate about 2.9 trillion yen ($18.5 billion) to research and development over the next five years.
Cost optimization
Expansion involves contraction. Daiichi announced on Monday that alongside new five-year revenue targets, it aims to reduce cumulative costs by 200 billion yen ($1.3 billion) over the same period by leveraging two pillars: artificial intelligence (AI) and procurement process optimization.
Daiichi President Hiroyuki Okuzawa said in a conference call on Monday, “We will expand our scope beyond routine tasks to include non-routine tasks, and utilize both general-purpose and dedicated AI to improve operational efficiency on a global scale.”
Through a new company-wide AI initiative launching this year, the company aims to first free up employees from traditional tasks and free up resources for more advanced work, the CEO explained.
To grow, the company may first need to expand its workforce around the world, and AI could be used to calculate the company’s human capital.
“AI resources can also be considered in conjunction with human resources to optimize headcount,” Okuzawa added.
A Daiichi spokesperson said the AI efforts do not include any layoffs at this time.
“Instead, we are focused on developing and implementing a human resources strategy that optimizes staffing across the organization by reskilling employees who have been released from traditional roles through improved operational efficiency and reassigning them to roles that best match their capabilities,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
According to the presentation, Daiichi expects selling, general and administrative expenses to increase by 15.8% in fiscal 2026 compared to the previous year, despite efforts to improve efficiency by investing in human capital “for medium- to long-term growth” and increasing profit share with AZ.
First, under the second cost optimization program, we are rolling out an ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’ platform as a data-driven approach to procurement management.
Daiichi recently reviewed its contracts with contract manufacturers after overbuilding production with the goal of maximizing patient demand for its ADCs. The impact on operating profit for fiscal 2025, which ends in March 2026, will be 75.7 billion yen due to external CMO compensation and 19.3 billion yen due to the cancellation of investment plans at the Odawara office in Japan.
First, the company is forecasting core operating profit of 360 billion yen in fiscal 2026, and has recorded approximately 80 billion yen as CMO compensation. In terms of revenue, Daiichi expects to reach 2.28 trillion yen this year.
