Celltrion beats market consensus with net $126 million in first quarter

Celltrion reported a consensus-beating net profit of 167.1 billion won ($126.4 million) in the first quarter on strong sales of biosimilar products.

On year, the net is up 37.8 percent, beating the market consensus of 155 billion won.

Operating profit rose 41.1 percent on year to 182.4 billion won during the January-to-March period, falling slightly short of the 190-billion-won analyst estimate.

Revenue increased 12.4 percent to 597.5 billion won, in line with the market consensus.

The European market share for Remsima, a biosimilar copy of Janssen Biotech's Remicade, was 60.6 percent as of the end of the fourth quarter last year, while Truxima's share stood at 21.6 percent, followed by Herzuma's 14.5 percent.

Remsima’s market share in the United States stood at 31.4 percent, while Truxima had 30 percent.

Biosimilars, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are biological products that are approved based on proof that they are highly similar to other FDA-approved products. The drugs have no clinically meaningful difference in terms of safety or effectiveness from the reference product, but they cost less.

Celltrion shares fell 0.37 percent to close at 162,400 won Monday.

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