April 26, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Celltrion's biosimilar products are likely to continue to drive earnings growth in the first quarter, a local securities firm said on March 24.

“The supply of Celltrion’s flagship product Remsima is showing strong on-year growth,” Kang Yang-ku, an analyst at HMC Investment & Securities said. 

HMC forecast that the biopharmaceutical company will report an operating profit of 73.4 billion won (US$65.40 million) in the January-March period, up 171.9 percent from a year earlier.

He said the US biosimilar market is expected to blossom if the US House of Representatives passes the Donald Trump administration’s health care bill, which will have a favorable impact on the company.

In Europe, the largest contributor of biosimilar revenues worldwide, Celltrion’s Truxima -- copycat of Roche’s MabThera -- will gradually expand sales as the European Medicines Agency has approved the drug for use in all the licensed indications. It is the first copycat of its kind to win regulatory approval in February, the analyst said.

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