Celltrion announced in a filing on the 21st that its operating profit on a consolidation basis for the third quarter of this year was tentatively tallied at 301.0 billion won, up 44.9% from a year earlier. Revenue for the same period rose 16.3% on-year to 1.026 trillion won. This is the company's largest third-quarter revenue and the largest quarterly operating profit on record.
The company cited steady sales of key products across global markets and the expansion of sales of new, higher-margin products as the drivers of the results.
In particular, revenue from new products, including "Remsima SC" (U.S. product name Zymfentra), increased 51% from a year earlier, leading overall revenue growth. Remsima is a biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson (J&J)'s autoimmune disease treatment "Remicade" (ingredient name infliximab). Celltrion developed it from the existing intravenous (IV) formulation into a subcutaneous (SC) formulation to improve patient convenience.
These high-margin products accounted for 42% of total revenue in the third quarter of last year, but their share rose to 54% in the third quarter of this year. In the first quarter of sales after their launches in the United States and Europe in the third quarter of this year, the bone disease treatment "Stoboclo-Osenbelt" (denosumab) and the allergy treatment "Omriclo" (omalizumab) together recorded more than 50.0 billion won in revenue.
In these results, the company signaled that the impact from its past merger with Celltrion Healthcare has entered the final stage, and projected an acceleration in earnings growth. The cost of goods sold ratio fell 9 percentage points from a year earlier to 39%, entering the 30% range. The company said this reflects not only the dissipation of merger effects but also the depletion of previously high-cost inventory, improved production yields, and the end of amortization of development costs.
Celltrion plans to roll out additional new high-margin products in major global markets by year-end, including the ophthalmic disease treatment Eydenzelt (aflibercept) and Stoboclo-Osenbelt.
With tariff risk from the United States still lingering, the company said the acquisition of Eli Lilly's biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in New Jersey is expected to help mitigate the risk. Following the acquisition agreement, it also signed a contract manufacturing (CMO) deal with Lilly, securing a U.S. production base as well as growth drivers, according to the analysis. Celltrion also plans to begin expanding facilities for the production of key products on idle land secured within the acquired plant.
A Celltrion official said, "As of the third quarter of this year, with most of the impact from the merger resolved, we expect to achieve a higher level of earnings growth going forward," adding, "By year-end, we also plan to launch additional new high-margin products in major global markets such as Europe, and the entire company will work to further accelerate revenue growth and performance improvement."