Oncology

Today, oncology is one of Daiichi Sankyo’s priority research areas. But important achievements have also been made in this field in the past. In 1977, Sankyo launched one of the world’s first cancer treatments under the brand name Krestin®. It is still used to fight gastric and colon cancer as well as non-small cell lung cancer.

In the 1990s, another leading cancer therapy was developed by Daiichi. Together with Yakult Honsha, the company developed irinotecan, which is still a standard treatment for colon cancer. The product was licensed out to other pharmaceutical companies outside Japan.