Celltrion’s Q3 earnings beat market consensus to hit record high

South Korean biosimilar maker Celltrion Inc's operating profit topped market expectations by more than 20% in the third quarter, hitting a record high. Results were led by buoyant sales of its flagship products in Europe and the US, alongside a new contract manufacturing order received from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc., a global pharmaceutical company.

Celltrion's operating profit more than doubled to 245.3 billion won ($220 million) in the July-September period from a year earlier, up 137.8% year on year, the company said after market close Nov. 9.

The results compared to the market consensus of 190.3 billion won, and its second-quarter operating profit of 181.8 billion won.

Sales also climbed to a record 548.8 billion won in the third quarter, a 90% increase on year.

Its blockbuster biosimilar Remsima, an anti-inflammatory treatment, commanded 55% of Europe’s autoimmune disease treatment market in the third quarter, about twice the market share of Janssen's original Remicade, according to data provider IQVIA and Celltrion Healthcare Co, a marketing arm.

Remsima's subcutaneous (SC) injection type helped expand the biosimilar maker’s presence in Europe. Celltrion developed Remsima's world’s first intravenous injection and SC injection types. Now it is co-developing a tablet-type version of the biosimilar.

Celltrion’s two other biosimilars – Truxima and Herzuma – secured 37% and 16% of the European markets in the third quarter, respectively.

Truxima, a blood cancer medication, saw its US market share rise to 20.4% in the July-September period, compared to the second quarter's 16%, according to Symphony Healthcare Services, a medical service data provider. Truxima entered the US market last November.

Celltrion's third-quarter sales account for 46.5 billion won of the 115.6 billion won deposit that Teva paid in a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) order for its migraine treatment Ajovy.

Meanwhile, the quarterly results did not include sales of Celltrion's two kinds of COVID-19 test kits, co-developed by Korean companies, as well as the coronavirus treatment candidate CT-P59. The test kits began sales in the US in August.

For full-year 2020, Celltrion's operating profit is estimated to be in the 700 billion to 800 billion won range, according to analysts. Combining earnings from Celltrion Healthcare Co. and other units, the Celltrion Group’s operating profit is forecast to top 1 trillion won this year.

Its founder and Chairman Seo Jung-jin said last month that the Celltrion Group’s operating profit is expected to reach 2 trillion won next year and exceed 8 trillion won in 2025, adding that the pharmaceutical group has firm footing to grow over 80% in operating profit on average over the next 10 years.

Write to Wu-sub Kim at duter@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.