Celltrion Reports 2.2 Trillion KRW in Sales Last Year... "Expecting 3.5 Trillion KRW in Sales This Year"

Celltrion announced on the 29th that it recorded operating results last year with sales of KRW 2.1764 trillion and operating profit of KRW 651.481 billion. Sales decreased by 4.71% compared to 2022, while operating profit slightly increased by 0.66%. The company expects sales to reach KRW 3.5 trillion this year, with EBITDA also expected to reach KRW 1.6 trillion.

Incheon Songdo Celltrion Plant 2 Overview. / Incheon = Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The company explained, "Sales slightly decreased due to temporary factors such as reduced sales of COVID-19 related products following the endemic (periodic outbreak of infectious diseases)," adding, "Operating profit and operating profit margin (OPM) improved by 0.7% and 0.2 percentage points respectively, demonstrating the company's solid fundamentals."

In particular, the core business of biosimilars continued its growth trend with sales of KRW 1.453 trillion last year, an 11.6% increase compared to the previous year. The intravenous formulation of Remsima, an autoimmune disease treatment, recorded sales of about KRW 1 trillion last year, and RemsimaSC, the subcutaneous injection formulation that improves dosing convenience, also exceeded annual sales of KRW 300 billion.

According to IQVIA, a pharmaceutical market research firm, Remsima and RemsimaSC led the market with a combined market share of 72% in the third quarter of last year across five major European countries. Especially, additional growth is expected through the mid-next-month launch of Zimpenetra (the U.S. product name for RemsimaSC) in the U.S. and the addition of indications for inflammatory bowel disease in Canada.

Celltrion plans to grow RemsimaSC into a global blockbuster within two years. They are currently conducting preliminary negotiations for listing on the prescription formularies of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), a prerequisite for sales in the U.S. market, and are actively carrying out various launch marketing activities targeting patients and healthcare professionals to ensure early market establishment.

Additionally, anticancer drugs Truxima, Herzuma, Vegzelma, and the autoimmune disease treatment Uplima continue steady growth, which is expected to lead to continuous profitability improvement through increased supply of high-margin biosimilars.

The effects of the merger are also expected to become full-fledged starting this year. In December last year, Celltrion optimized its business structure by absorbing Celltrion Healthcare. They plan to gradually improve the cost of sales ratio from the 60% range in Q1 this year to 30% in Q4 and to the 20% range by Q4 next year through the depletion of inventory held by Celltrion Healthcare before the merger and production of new active pharmaceutical ingredients. The debt ratio also significantly decreased from 37.8% to 16.1% due to increased capital after the merger.

Celltrion expects sales to significantly increase to the KRW 3.5 trillion range this year. This is possible if new products such as Zimpenetra support a full-scale expansion of prescriptions in the second half of the year, in addition to steady sales of existing biosimilar products. EBITDA is expected to reach KRW 1.6 trillion, with an EBITDA margin exceeding 40%.

A Celltrion official said, “Last year, we achieved steady growth in the core biosimilar business and optimized our business structure. This year will be a year of new leaps forward through portfolio expansion and improvement of the cost of sales ratio.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.