Celltrion CEO Seo Jeong-jin said at a shareholders meeting Tuesday that his company could reach 30 trillion won ($26.5 billion) in sales as soon as 2027. For 2020, he suggested a figure of 5 trillion won.

Celltrion has yet to cross the threshold of 1 trillion won, although the company set its own best mark in 2018 with 982.1 billion won in sales profit, an increase of 33 billion won from the year before.

Seo, while attending a business trip in Japan, connected via phone to speak to shareholders attending the annual meeting held in Songdo, Incheon. 

The event marked direct attendance of 3,526 shareholders owning a total of 64,884,606 shares with voting rights.

Seo emphasized that Remsima SC will tow the future of Celltrion. Remsima SC is a subcutaneous self-injectable version of Remsima, a Celltrion biosimilar used to treat autoimmune diseases. Celltrion is preparing to distribute the drug on its own through its affiliate Celltrion Healthcare.

Seo envisions Remsima SC’s approval in the US and Japan by the first half of 2022, and to have sales begin in the second half of the same year.

Celltrion and Celltrion Healthcare will also make a joint investment of 100 billion won to establish a local corporate body in China in which the two will share a stake of 60 percent and a Chinese partner firm will hold 40 percent.

Celltrion is getting ready to commercialize blood cancer treatment biosimilar Truxima and breast cancer biosimilar Herzuma in the US through its Israeli multinational pharma company, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

All resolutions raised at the shareholders meeting passed, including a motion to modify the business identity of Celltrion, changing the word “biopharmaceutical” to “pharmaceutical” in descriptions of what the company manufactures and exports, signaling the company’s intentions of developing more chemical drugs in the future.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)