You get an ADC, you get an ADC: Pharmas bite on oncology’s buzziest class

MADRID — When Dai­ichi Sankyo sci­en­tists pushed for­ward with an­ti­body-drug con­ju­gate re­search near­ly a decade ago, the pro­gram had a lot of naysay­ers, even in­side the com­pa­ny.

An­ti­body-drug con­ju­gates, or AD­Cs, were falling out of fash­ion, and much of the in­dus­try was mov­ing on to oth­er treat­ment types. “Why do we think that our AD­Cs are go­ing to be any bet­ter than ex­ist­ing ones?” peo­ple thought at the time, ac­cord­ing to Dai­ichi Sankyo R&D head Ken Takeshi­ta, who joined the com­pa­ny lat­er on in 2021.

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