Celltrion's $521 million net is up 20.1%

A Celltrion researcher holds a vial of CT-P59, the company's Covid-19 treatment. [NEWS1]

Celltrion reported 623.7 billion won ($521 million) in net profit in 2021, up 20.1 percent on year, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Its net fell short of a market consensus of 646.3 billion won compiled by FnGuide.

Annual revenue came in at 1.89 trillion won, up 2.3 percent on year, while operating profit rose 5.9 percent to 753.9 billion won. Both were in line with market expectations.

Global sales of its biosimilar products helped profitability, the company said.

European market share for Remsima, a biosimilar copy of Janssen Biotech's Remicade, was 54 percent as of the end of third quarter, followed by Truxima's 34 percent and breast cancer biosimilar Herzuma's 13 percent.

Remsima’s market share in the United States stood at 22.6 percent, while Truxima had 25.4 percent as of the end of December.

“Increased sales of Covid-19 treatment Regkirona and our Covid test kits also contributed,” the company said.

The Songdo, Incheon-based biopharmaceutical company is projecting a profitable 2022 as many of its biosimilar products are ready to be launched in global markets.

Celltrion's CT-P17, a biosimilar of Abbvie's Humira, or adalimumab, was approved for sale in Europe in February last year. It also received a final nod from Canada in late December.

CT-P16, its biosimilar version of anticancer drug Avastin, is currently awaiting approvals from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the European Medicines Agency, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Celltrion aims to release the product in the second half.

Despite the strong earnings, Celltrion’s shares have lost about half their value over the year, mainly due to investor concerns an investigation of the company for alleged accounting fraud.

A deliberation body under the Financial Services Commission (FSC) is investigating three listed Celltrion companies — Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm — after a nearly three-year probe by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Concerns center on whether Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm, marketing companies that handle the sale of Celltrion products, are illegally profiting from transactions with the pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Celltrion shares, which traded as high as 403,500 won on Dec. 7, 2020, closed at 158,000 won Wednesday, down 61 percent.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]