Daiichi invests 1 billion eur near Munich to make precision cancer drugs
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daiichi Sankyo said on Friday it would invest about 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to expand a site near Munich, Germany, to boost its work on precision cancer drugs.
The expansion project marks another welcome win to shore up the government's economic credentials after U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly in November pledged to invest 2.3 billion euros to make obesity and diabetes drugs in Germany, even as the country is likely to see a second year of recession in 2024.
The investment was announced as health minister Karl Lauterbach visited the center in Pfaffenhofen, north of Daiichi's European headquarters in Munich.
Daiichi's project, which will create 350 jobs by 2030, will add capacity to make cardiovascular drugs and labs to develop and produce antibody drug conjugates (ADC), a promising new class of precision chemotherapy drugs.
The Japanese drugmaker has partnered with AstraZeneca on two ADCs, one of which is breast cancer drug Enhertu, and it struck another deal on three ADCs with Merck & Co in October.
($1 = 0.9305 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; editing by Bartosz Dabrowski)
