20201217 Daiichi Sankyo cancer img2

Many investors have flocked to buy Daiichi Sankyo shares following the successful launch of its Enhertu cancer treatment that mainly targets breast cancer and is widely expected to become a global blockbuster. (Nikkei montage)

Daiichi Sankyo: Drugmaker roars back to health with cancer success

After Ranbaxy debacle, Japanese company charts new path with focus on R&D

TOKYO -- Until just several years ago, pharmaceutical manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo was one of the most unpopular public companies among investors in Japan, rocked by an internal feud and reeling from a disastrous acquisition in India. But it has roared back and is now one of the country's most valuable corporations.

With its market capitalization hitting 8.2 trillion yen ($78.9 billion) in late November -- the highest since the company's creation through a merger between two Japanese drugmakers in 2005 -- it is now ahead of Takeda Pharmaceutical, the sector's revenue leader in Japan, and competes with Chugai Pharmaceutical, a unit of Switzerland's Roche, for the title of the most valuable such corporation in Japan.

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