May 11, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar development unit of Samsung Group, narrowed its net loss in 2016 by 36 percent over the previous year buoyed by increased sales of its copycat biologics which started to hit the global market.

The company posted a net loss of 106.5 billion won (US$91.41 million), up from 166.6 billion won a year ago, according to its affiliate Samsung BioLogics on Jan. 24. 

Revenue has shot up to 147.6 billion won, a fivefold jump from 23.9 billion won in 2015.

Operating loss has also been reduced by 37 percent on-year to 100.2 billion won.

“Sales and profit have improved as our biosimilar drug Flixabi and Benepali were launched in overseas markets,” an official at Samsung Bioepis said.

Flixabi is a copycat of Johnson & Johnson’s top drug Remicade and Benepali is the first etanercept biosimilar referencing Amgen’s Enbrel.

As of end of third quarter last year, sales of Benepali hit US$47.9 million in European markets, where its partner Biogen markets the brand under license.

Samsung Bioepis and Biogen share half of the revenue generated from the biosimilar drug.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)