April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Celltrion said on Nov. 8 that its operating profit soared 89.3 percent on-year in the third quarter.

Operating income came to 140 billion won (US$125.80 million) in the July-September period, compared with 74 billion won logged the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales also jumped 37.9 percent on-year to 232 billion won, with net profit also almost doubling to 114 billion won over the cited period.

The stronger bottom line came on the back of hefty sales of Remsima in overseas markets, both in Europe and the United States.

“In addition to increased sales in overseas markets, improved yields at biomedicine factories have resulted in positive earnings,” said a company official asked not to be named.

Remsima is an identical copy of Janssen Biotech’s Remicade, and is effective in treating various diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to Crohn‘s disease. In the U.S. market, Remsima went on sale during the fourth quarter of last year under the name Inflectra by Pfizer Inc.

The company also began selling another biosimilar drug Truxima in Germany and in Britain following approval from European regulators.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)