Sales of Celltrion’s COVID-19 treatment could reach 1.2 trillion won ($1.06 billion) this year, a local securities firm said Monday.

According to a report from Hana Financial Investment, sales of Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment CT-P59 are expected to increase since Celltrion received a positive scientific opinion from the European Medicines Agency last week for its monoclonal antibody treatment candidate.

But the report said Celltrion’s production capacity for the drug would only be around 2 million doses a year. Celltrion previously said it could produce 3.2 million doses a year.

Celltrion currently operates its 100,000-liter-capacity Plant 1, where the company could produce 1.3 million doses of its COVID-19 treatment annually. The company said it could also operate Plant 2 and look for a contract manufacturing organization to produce an additional 1.9 million doses.

Hana Financial Investment said Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment is expected to be sold at a price of around $875 in European countries. That is about 70 percent of the $1,250 per dose the US government paid for Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody drug.

Celltrion is the third company to develop an antibody treatment especially for the novel coronavirus, after Eli Lilly and Regeneron.

The price of Celltrion’s COVID-19 treatment could vary in different countries, depending on the contracts between the respective governments and Celltrion Healthcare, the overseas sales and marketing unit of Celltrion, the report noted.

The South Korean pharmaceutical giant’s annual sales this year could increase to 3.3 trillion won, backed by the sales of its COVID-19 treatment, the report added.

Eugene Investment and Securities projected that Celltrion’s 2021 sales would reach 2.8 trillion won, supported by the launch of its COVID-19 treatment in the overseas market during the first half of this year. The local securities firm added that its operating profit could also go up to 1.2 trillion won.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)