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| GC녹십자 (사진=GC녹십자) |
[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] GC Biopharma recorded a deficit for the second straight quarter as profitability declined due to increased research and development (R&D) costs and a drop in subsidiary sales.
Green Cross's strategy is to improve its performance by expanding new drug development and expanding its vaccine business overseas, but industry sources predict that GC Biopharma's annual performance will slow down this year.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 8th, Green Cross recorded consolidated sales of 349.5 billion won and operating loss of 13.6 billion won in the first quarter of this year. Sales fell 16.2% year-on-year and operating losses shifted to deficits. Net loss also turned into a deficit of 22.1 billion won. GC Biopharma posted operating losses of 22.4 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year and continued to suffer losses for the second consecutive quarter.
GC Biopharma explained that profitability worsened due to the cost of a one-off R&D. GC Biopharma's first-quarter R&D spending was 14.1 billion won, up 58.5 percent from a year earlier. R&D spending increased in February by introducing new pipelines from abroad, including the acquisition of a new drug candidate for blood clotting from Catalyst Bioscience in the U.S. In fact, GC Biopharma subsidiaries, which recorded 152.5 billion won in sales in the first quarter of last year, saw their sales plunge 37.2% to 95.8 billion won in the first quarter of this year.
Sales related to COVID-19 by GCCELL and Green Cross MS fell significantly. GC Cell recorded its best performance with sales of 83.8 billion won and operating profit of 36.1 billion won in the first quarter of last year due to strong COVID-19 sample examination business. During the same period, Green Cross Medical Sci's COVID-19 diagnostic kit business saw its sales rise 93.4 percent year-on-year and operating profit rise 86 percent.
AlphaBIZ Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
