Mr. Wakao Masaji (Market Research Division Equity Research D...

Mr. Wakao Masaji (Market Research Division Equity Research Division Vice President) of JPMorgan Securities says, “The evaluation of Daiichi Sankyo in recent years has been rising steadily along with the growth of Enhearts.” Since it was launched as a tertiary treatment for HER2 positive breast cancer in the US in January 2020, Daiichi Sankyo has expanded the adaptation of ENHARTS to multiple countries and diseases. As a result, stock prices, which were in the 2000 yen range in 2019, reached the 3000 yen range in mid-2020.
Since the overall market showed a conservative trend in 2021, stocks that anticipate future growth became sluggish. Driven by that, Daiichi Sankyo's stock price also fell, and in August of the same year, the stock price temporarily divided by 2000 yen. Furthermore, as an individual factor, it is said that “there were concerns about the results of arbitration with US Seagen over the ownership of ADC rights” (Mr. Wakao). Therefore, until the end of 2021, the company's stock price was going back and forth from the 2000 yen range to the 3000 yen range.
However, since it was announced in 2022/2 that the main evaluation items were achieved in the Enhertz phase 3 clinical trial (Destiny-Breast04 trial, hereinafter DB04 trial) targeting breast cancer patients with low HER2 expression, the company's stock price began to be reviewed. Conventionally, 15% to 20% of all breast cancer patients were HER2 positive and were subject to anti-HER2 therapy by Enhertz, but the remaining 80% or more were grouped together as HER2 negative and were not eligible for anti-HER2 therapy. In the DB04 trial, up to 50% of all breast cancer patients were reclassified as “HER2 low-expression breast cancer,” opening up the possibility of treatment with ENHARTS. Furthermore, details of the DB04 test were revealed at ASCO in June of the same year, and the stock price increased to the 3500 yen range.