Late October 19, the Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo and US based Merck, both holdings in Arctic Aurora LifeScience, announced a licensing and co-development agreement for three of Daiichi’s drug candidates. The transactional details reveal one of the most value-rich collaboration agreements in the industry’s history. Daiichi will receive a USD 4bn upfront cash payment from Merck and potentially an additional USD 1.5 billion in the next 12-24 months pending development progression of two the drugs. In addition, each drug comes with USD 5.5bn commercial milestones or potentially USD 16.5 billion in aggregate. Except for Merck taking a lion share of initial R&D costs, the companies will then split global expenses and profits equally between them apart from Japan where Daiichi retains all rights.