Samsung Bioepis, a subsidiary of Samsung Epis Holdings, said on the 26th that last year's annual revenue rose 9% from a year earlier to 1.672 trillion won, while operating profit fell 14% to 375.9 billion won.
Operating profit declined due to a decrease in one-off milestone (research and development performance reward) revenue, but product sales revenue increased sharply.
Fourth-quarter revenue was 429.4 billion won, up 8% from the same period a year earlier, while fourth-quarter operating profit fell 60% from the same period a year earlier to 29.2 billion won.
A company official said, "A loss occurred as amortization of PPA (purchase price allocation) was reflected in accounting during the corporations partitioning process," and noted, "It is unrelated to actual cash flow." PPA amortization means depreciating intangible asset such as research and development costs.
Sixty percent of Samsung Bioepis' total revenue comes from Europe. Samsung Bioepis first introduced SB4, a treatment for autoimmune diseases, in Europe in 2016. It has increased its current products for sale to 10, and sells four of them directly through its local sales network.
Samsung Bioepis introduced two products in the United States last year with a global pharmaceutical company, including a Stelara biosimilar. Stelara is an autoimmune disease treatment developed by global drugmaker Janssen. The Stelara biosimilar also signed a private-label contract under which a major PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) supplies the medicine under its own brand.
Samsung Bioepis plans to expand its biosimilars and pipeline (new drug candidates) to 20 types by 2030. It is pushing to develop new drugs in the field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), known as guided missiles that target cancer cells. The goal is to enter at least one IND (investigational new drug application) each year.