Celltrion Q1 sales projected at $458 mn to raise expectation for new sales milestone

[Photo provided by Celltrion Inc.]

Celltrion Inc. may achieve a sale milestone of 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) this year as it is projected to have earned more than 500 billion won in the first quarter.

The Korean biosimilar giant¡¯s first-quarter sales are estimated at 511 billion won, up 37.1 percent from a year earlier, according to a market consensus compiled by local financial data tracker FnGuide on Thursday. Analysts anticipate the company to maintain the strong sales momentum throughout the year to achieve sales of 2 trillion won.

Celltrion¡¯s operating income for the January-March period is estimated at 191.4 billion won, up 59.2 percent on year. Its net profit is projected to have jumped 20 percent to 126.4 billion won.

The company is expected to enjoy strong sales with the addition of its new product Covid-19 antibody treatment CT-P59 (regdanvimab).

Other Korean drug makers, especially biosimilar and bio-tech companies, are also poised to show earnings improvement.

Samsung Biologics Co. is estimated to have earned 82.8 billion won in operating income for the first quarter, which would be the second largest after Celltrion. The contract drug making unit under Samsung Group is estimated to have raked in 306.5 billion won in sales, jumping 50 percent compared to a year earlier.

Pharma major Yuhan Corp.¡¯s sales for the first quarter is estimated at 386.6 billion won, up 23 percent on year.

GC Pharma and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical are anticipated to show a 12-percent jump in sales to 346.3 billion won and 327.6 billion won, respectively.

Hanmi Pharm is projected to have made 28.5 billion won in profit from operation, which would be the largest among pharmaceutical companies.

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