Celltrion Healthcare, the sales and marketing unit of Celltrion, said Friday that it would actively seek out new drug candidates to broaden its product portfolio as well as build stronger direct sales routes globally to boost profits.

The firm’s new direction was announced by its CEO Kim Man-hoon during a press conference held in Seoul ahead of the company’s scheduled public listing on Korea’s secondary bourse Kosdaq on July 28.

According to Kim, Celltrion Healthcare is looking for overseas investment opportunities including strategic acquisitions, joint ventures and licensing partnerships with new drug developers, with aims to emerge as a “global top-tier marketing and sales company.”

The company also plans to leverage the new funds generated by the initial public offering to expand its direct sales networks overseas. In doing so, it hopes to yield higher margins from its sales activities.

Celltrion Healthcare currently sells biosimilar drugs developed by Celltrion, including Remsima referencing Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade and Truxima referencing Roche’s Rituxan, in 115 countries via 34 global marketing partners including Pfizer, Mundipharma and Biogaran.

And now, the Celltrion affiliate hopes to pave new sales channels of its own in emerging markets in Asia including Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines where it has already begun to make such moves.

Looking ahead, Celltrion Healthcare expects the size of the original pharmaceutical drug market it can target to grow fivefold to more than 55 trillion won ($48.5 billion) as Celltrion is expected to commercialize additional biosimilars in the coming years.

In addition to Remsima and Truxima, a biosimilar referencing Herceptin as well as the subcutaneous version of Remsima are slated to be launched by Celltrion before 2019.

“We have plans to launch a major biosimilar every year until 2019. If Remsima had tapped into a market worth 10 trillion won in the past, the remainder of Celltrion’s drugs will step into a market worth more than 50 trillion won within three years,” Kim said.

Celltrion Healthcare is set to raise up to around 1 trillion won from its upcoming IPO. It has put 24,604,000 new shares up for sale at an indicative price range of 32,500 won to 41,000 won.

Once listed, Celltrion Healthcare’s market capitalization can reach between 4.44 trillion won to 5.6 trillon won, making it the second most valuable company on the Kosdaq.

Celltrion Healthcare’s official IPO price will be finalized on July 17. The shares will be offered for sale to interested investors for two days on July 19 and July 20. Mirae Asset Daewoo and UBS are lead advisors for the listing.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)