바이오스펙테이터

바이오스펙테이터 Jongwon Jang 기자

Macrogen, Korea’s biggest genome sequencing company, broke a record last year with its revenue, according to its consolidated financial statements.

In its regulatory filing, the company announced on February 8 that its revenue last year increased from 91.1 billion to 101.8 billion KRW, a 12 % increase from a year ago, while operating profit rose 2.5 % from the previous year to 3.1 billion KRW. Macrogen also reported 7.6 billion KRW in net profit last year.

Macrogen said that its sales in the fourth quarter increased 13 % on-year to 29.7 billion KRW. Operating profit in the October-December period jumped 164 % from 800 million to 2.1 billion KRW, and net profit surged 128 % year-on-year to 10 billion KRW.

The company has enjoyed stable growth in revenue for the third consecutive year, marking an annual growth rate of 23 %. Last year, the first-half sales shrank by 8 %, but in the latter half, recovered to a 15 % level.

Macrogen’s two subsidiary companies, Macrogen USA and Macrogen Japan, were established as part of Macrogen’s global localization strategy in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Last year, their combined sales (3.0 billion KRW in Macrogen USA, and 1.0 billion KRW in Macrogen Japan) logged 4.0 billion KRW.

"The slight increase in operating profit last year was attributable to short-term fiercer pricing competition in the global arena, and Macrogen’s expanded investment in order to strategically prepare for the future", a company official said.

"We are making aggressive investment in a number of R&D sectors, such as a genome database project for Asians, and the development of gene editing platform technology, before advancing into the gene therapy business, and research for stem cell production."

Macrogen said its net profits slipped, due to the strength of the local currency.

“This year, we will speed up the development of future medical innovations and increase our business strategic agility in the gene therapy field, based on our high-quality gene analysis service”, said Moon Ji-young, CEO of Macrogen.

“Building on our R&D strength, Macrogen will lay down the foundation to become a top bio venture firm.”