The Origins of Nuvation Bio’s Deal with Daichii Sankyo for the Rights to Safusidenib in Japan

Pharmaceutical Executive recently spoke with Nuvation Bio’s president, CEO, and founder David Hung. The growing biotech is focused on oncology treatments is building a strong reputation in the space following a string of regulatory wins.

In June of 2025, Nuvation announced FDA’s approval of Ibtrozi, a next-generation oral ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). More recently, the biotech announced that UK’s drug regulatory body accepted the marketing application for taletrectinib.¹

During his conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive, Hung discussed the company’s relationship with the market, it’s current pipeline and upcoming goals, along with his approach to leadership and building a team that’s able to produce strong results.

Pharmaceutical Executive: Can you discuss the origins of the deal with Daichii Sankyo for the rights to safusidenib in Japan?
David Hung: We acquired a company called AnHeart Therapeutics from China a little over two years ago, and we were looking at lots of different business development opportunities. We found this one particularly compelling because they had two drugs that we thought were underappreciated.

One was the lung cancer drug and the other was the brain tumor drug. Both of these assets came from Daiichi Sankyo, and it turns out that a number of years ago, when Daiichi generated really compelling data on their antibody drug conjugate platform, they divested their small molecule program, which is why Anheart was able to acquire those two assets.

Anheart was a private company in China, and they had a difficulty raising capital. We noticed the assets were really underappreciated, and we made a bid to acquire them, which we closed about two years ago.

Source

1. Can Nuvation Bio Inc (NUVB) Stock Soar 150% From Current Level. Yahoo Finance. July 13, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/nuvation-bio-inc-nuvb-stock-092851856.html