Humasis, a Korean in-vitro diagnostic medical device company, said Thursday that Celltrion has terminated a contract to supply Humasis' at-home Covid-19 antigen diagnosis kit.

The two companies initially signed the contract worth $114.78 million (133.6 billion won) on Jan. 22.

However, Humasis explained that it only received $37.52 million out of the $114.78 million it had originally expected to receive.

The unpaid funds due to the canceled contract amount to $72.6 million, which accounts for 201.16 percent of Humasis' consolidated sales at the end of 2020.

As Humasis had previously cited the at-home Covid-19 antigen diagnosis kit business as one of its main growth strategies, industry watchers expect the contract termination with Celltrion will inevitably affect the company's plans.

"This contract termination is under Celltrion's unilateral notice of contract termination," a Humasis official said. "We are reviewing relevant law on unilateral notice of contract termination and plan to respond actively, including filing legal actions against Celltrion."

In response, Celltrion said it terminated the contract as Humasis failed to supply the Covid-19 diagnostic kits on time, which led to Celltrion missing the best window of opportunity to enter U.S. Covid-19 diagnostic market in earnest.

"Since then, due to changes in the Covid-19 pandemic environment, our contractual counterpart Celltrion USA requested that we change the supply amount specified in the contract to be changed and the amount of the supply contract," a Celltrion official said.

However, Celltrion declined to comment on its plans regarding Humasis' possible legal actions.