Daiichi Sankyo plans to splash out some 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion) on Enhertu manufacturing facilities across the globe, Nikkei reported on Saturday.
According to the Tokyo-based news outlet, Daiichi’s planned manufacturing investments are rooted in easing geopolitical risks such as tariffs. The company is reportedly setting up spots for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) production in Japan, the U.S., Germany and China.
Daiichi’s footprint in its home country of Japan will expand thanks to planned spending of 77 billion yen ($491.7 million) at an existing plant in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, according to the report.
In Germany, where the company currently operates a manufacturing spot in Munich, 140 billion yen ($894 million) will go toward production sites for Enhertu and “other products” by the end of 2028, the publication reported.
In China, 24 billion yen ($153 million) is earmarked for a new Shanghai site that will be built by 2030, according to Nikkei. Daiichi first committed to the Shanghai ADC spot in late 2024 after Enhertu made it onto China’s National Reimbursement Drug List for 2025, describing the move as a major milestone in the company’s progress in China and a reflection of its commitment to China in the long run.
The drugmaker’s U.S. presence in Ohio, meanwhile, is up for a 56 billion yen ($357.8 million) investment for additional facilities at its existing plant—an expansion that should wrap up by October 2027, according to the report. Daiichi announced an expansion at its New Albany, Ohio, site in 2024.
A Daiichi spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fierce Pharma’s request for comment on the report.
The company had already earmarked $350 million for U.S. production expansions long before the threat of pharmaceutical tariffs emerged, CEO Hiroyuki Okuzawa said on an April earnings call, as reported by Endpoints News. While the previously announced expansion in 2024 was due to increasing U.S. demand for Enhertu, Okuzawa noted that the company was also looking at further investments at the Ohio site.
Daiichi has been sporadically boosting its production capabilities over the years, with recent investments centered on ADCs as it looks to bolster its stronghold in the field. In 2023, GlobalData predicted that Daiichi will dominate the ADC space through 2029, continuing with the breakthrough impact of AstraZeneca-partnered Enhertu in HER2-low breast cancer.
The drug is still on a hot streak since its 2019 approval, picking up $3.75 billion in 2024 combined sales reported by Daiichi and AstraZeneca. Last month, Enhertu snagged another FDA nod as a first-line treatment for unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer when combined with Roche’s Perjeta.
AstraZeneca, for its part, has also bulked up its global production capabilities in the face of tariff threats, most recently with a $2 billion manufacturing investment in Maryland.