One after another, Korean biopharmaceutical companies are joining the club of 100 billion won ($85.1 million) in quarterly operating profit.

Bolstering their growth in the global markets is differentiated competitiveness based on biosimilar production, contract development, and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services of biopharmaceutical products and Covid-19 vaccines, industry insiders said Tuesday.

robust performances are in stark contrast to the sluggish growth of traditional drugmakers, many of which barely reach the three-month profit landmark in more than 100 years of history.

For instance, SK Bioscience joined the club by posting an operating profit of 100.4 billion won in the third quarter, up 175.3 percent from the same period of last year. Such a feat comes only three years after the company was spun off from SK Chemicals as an independent company specializing in developing and making vaccines in July 2018.

SK Bioscience posted an operating loss in the first and second quarters of 2021 but turned to a profit in the third quarter of last year.

The biggest factor in the surge of earnings was the consignment production of the Covid-19 vaccine. The company signed a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) contract with AstraZeneca in July last year. Under the accord, SK Bioscience manufactured AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine at its L House plant located in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province.

In August last year, the company also signed a third-party contract with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Novavax to supply Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine and started its production. SK Bioscience will begin the supply of the Novavax vaccine after major governments approve the vaccine.

"Our sales increased by commercializing undiluted AZ Covid-19 vaccine and finished product as well as undiluted Covid-19 vaccine solution," the company said.

As a result, SK Bioscience has become the fourth Korean biopharmaceutical company to post a quarterly operating profit of 100 billion won, following Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Celltrion Healthcare, and Samsung Biologics.

Hanmi Pharm was the first Korean biopharmaceutical company to exceed 100 billion won in quarterly operating profit. The company recorded an operating profit of 171.5 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2015, marking a hefty 25-times increase from 6.9 billion won a year earlier.

Hanmi's record-breaking performance was attributable to its brisk export of technology to make new drugs. In 2015, Hanmi licensed out its treatment candidates to multinational giants, such as Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, and Sanofi.

Notably, the contract with Sanofi for its three new diabetes treatment candidates drew attention by its size of 400 million euros (500 billion won).

Celltrion Healthcare also reached the operating profit landmark by posting an operating profit of 127.7 billion won in the third quarter of 2020, backed by the strong sales of its four biosimilars -- Remsima, Remsima SC, Truxima, and Herzuma -- in overseas markets.

Celltrion expected its strong performance to continue by expanding its presence in the North American and European markets. However, the company’s operating profit has dropped to 31.5 billion won, and 76.2 billion won in the first and second quarters of this year.

Samsung Biologics, which focuses on biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing organization (CMO) service, crossed the threshold of 100 billion won operating profit in the second quarter of last year. Also, the company posted 166.8 billion won in the second quarter of this year and marked the profit of more than 100 billion won in the third quarter.

The global demand for Samsung Biologics' CMO is increasing rapidly as foreign pharmaceutical companies have come to have confidence in the company's stable supply capacity.

In the third quarter, Samsung Biologics signed additional CMO contracts with global pharmaceutical companies, such as Roche and MSD.

In contrast to the biopharmaceutical firms’ brisk performance, no traditional pharmaceutical company has attained a quarterly operating profit of 100 billion won since Hanmi did so in the fourth quarter of 2015.

GC was the only company that came close to recording the operating profit of over 100 billion won by posting 88.4 billion won in the first quarter of 2010.

Yuhan Corp., the largest traditional pharmaceutical company, recorded only 8 billion won in operating profit in the third quarter.