"Because of its specificity and selectivity, ADCS have the potential to reduce adverse side effects and improve patient survival"

Japan-headquartered Daiichi Sankyo, the global healthcare company, launched its subsidiary Daiichi Sankyo Singapore Pte. Ltd. to bridge unmet needs in oncology.

- Hithaishi C Bhaskar

The new Asia Pacific regional hub will be a centre of excellence, providing excellence in Research & Development, Pharmacovigilance, Medical Affairs and key processes and systems across the region.

The Singapore subsidiary will be home to the RDPV QA (Research & Development, Pharmacovigilance, and Quality Assurance) function. In addition, the Singapore subsidiary will focus on antibodydrug conjugates (ADCs), a class of drugs that offer targeted precision and potent drug delivery to certain tumour types. ADCs deliver potent cancer-killing agents directly to cancer cells to eliminate them, whilst limiting damage to healthy surrounding cells. Koichi Morino, Managing Director at Daiichi Sankyo Singapore shares more details with BioSpectrum Asia.

How does Daiichi Sankyo leverage antibodydrug conjugates (ADCs) to execute precision therapeutics?

Daiichi Sankyo has a proprietary ADC technology called DXd. Daiichi Sankyo’s portfolio currently consists of six DXd ADCs in clinical development across multiple types of cancer, with one of them now in commercialisation. Each of our Daiichi Sankyo DXd ADCs pairs deruxtecan, our unique, stable linker and potent payload with a monoclonal antibody. This allows for versatility across a wide range of cancer types, each directed toward a specific antigen on the surface of cancer cells.