Celltrion Healthcare, the sales and marketing unit of South Korean drugmaker Celltrion, received the green light to start its initial public offering process on South Korea’s secondary bourse Kosdaq on Tuesday.
The Korea Exchange has approved Celltrion Healthcare’s listing on the Kosdaq, paving the way for the company’s plans to complete its stock market debut by early April.
(Celltrion Healthcare)
The company is seeking to raise up to 1 trillion won ($872 million), as it has set an indicative price range of between 33,300 won to 41,000 won per share, according to the KRX.
Celltrion Healthcare markets, sells and distributes Celltrion’s biosi milar drugs, which are cheaper, near replicas of biologic drugs that have lost patent protection.
Its public listing plans come as global sales of Celltrion’s two biosimilars referencing the blockbuster drugs Remicade and Rituxan are set to actively take off from this year.
Celltrion’s Remicade biosimilar has been sold in Europe under the name Remsima since February 2015. In November 2016, the same drug exclusively launched in the US under the name Inflectra via Celltrion’ US partner Pfizer.
In February this year, Celltrion obtained the European Medicine Agency’s approval for Truxima, a biosimilar referencing Roche’s Rituxan. The drug is set to hit European markets from the second quarter, the firm said.
Celltrion also plans to file Truxima for review by the US Food and Drug Administration early this year. It has submitted a third biosimilar referencing Herceptin, Herzuma, to the EMA for review. It plans to file Herzuma for approval by the FDA in the near future as well.
Last year, Celltrion Healthcare recorded a net profit of 122.9 billion won and revenue of 757.7 billion won, up by 88.3 percent and 329.7 percent on-year, respectively.
By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)
