October 13, 2024

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Major biosimilar manufacturer Celltrion ranked at the top among local companies last year in terms of R&D-to-sales ratio, industry data showed on May 1.

According to the data by market tracker CEO Score, Celltrion spent 289 billion won ($248 million), or 29.4 percent of its sales, on R&D last year, surpassing top internet portal operator Naver.

Naver, whose R&D-to-sales ratio was the highest in 2017, was relegated to second place with a ratio of 25.1 percent, the data showed.

CEO Score compared 214 firms that rank within the top 500 companies in terms of sales and made public their R&D spending.

Meanwhile, the companies’ combined R&D spending rose 8.3 percent last year to 49.88 trillion won over the cited period, with the ratio of R&D spending to revenue standing at 2.93 percent, only up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier.

In terms of R&D spending, Samsung Electronics topped the list with 18.66 trillion won, or 7.7 percent of its sales last year, the data showed.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)