Cellid’s Phase 3 Failure: 99% of Revenue Came From ‘Bread Ingredients’; What About EuBiologics?

The market capitalization gap between Cellid and EuBiologics, which both entered the race to develop COVID-19 vaccines, has widened to more than ninefold.

According to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and electronic disclosures filed with the Financial Supervisory Service on the 28th, Cellid disclosed on the 26th of last month that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate had failed to meet the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial, while EuBiologics signed a 29.8 billion won cholera vaccine supply agreement with UNICEF during the same month. Both companies are vaccine developers that entered KOSDAQ through technology-based special listings, but their cash-generation structures have diverged completely.

Immunogenicity falls short of Pfizer vaccine

Cellid’s AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI is an adenovirus-vector vaccine targeting the Omicron variant. The Phase 3 trial was designed as a head-to-head comparison with Pfizer’s Comirnaty bivalent vaccine in 4,000 adults aged 19 years or older.

The results fell below the threshold. The seroresponse rate for neutralizing antibodies was 17.12% (139 of 812 participants) in the investigational group and 42.64% (171 of 401 participants) in the control group. The difference between the two groups was 25.51 percentage points, and the lower bound of the 95% confidence interval exceeded the prespecified noninferiority margin of -10%.

The safety endpoint was met. No serious adverse events were reported after vaccination. Cellid said, "Based on the safety results secured, we plan to continue developing a COVID-19 preventive vaccine and are reviewing various designs and strategies for additional clinical trials that could supplement the immunogenicity results."

The stock price immediately collapsed. The shares, which stood at 2,510 won immediately before the disclosure, fell to the daily lower limit at the next trading session’s open and declined to 1,033 won on the 21st of this month. Market capitalization fell to 30.5 billion won, while the price-to-book ratio (PBR) dropped to 0.41.

This is not the first time the company has been stopped at a regulatory hurdle. Cellid disclosed on May 8 that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety had rejected its Phase 2 trial plan for AdCLD-CoV19-1 LP.8.1, a vaccine targeting new variants. The reason was that some supplementary materials were incomplete.

99.97% of vaccine company’s revenue comes from e-commerce

Cellid’s financial statements show that vaccine revenue is virtually nonexistent. Of the 8.842 billion won in consolidated revenue in 2025, 8.839 billion won came from the e-commerce business. That represented 99.97% of total revenue.

The business is For Baker, a bakery-ingredient distribution company acquired through a merger and acquisition in 2024. After Cellid went public in 2019 through a technology-based special listing, it acquired the company as concerns grew that it could be designated as an administrative issue stock for failing to meet the KOSDAQ listing-maintenance requirement of annual revenue of 3 billion won.

Revenue increased. E-commerce sales rose 132%, from 3.807 billion won in 2024 to 8.839 billion won in 2025. The increase was driven by sales of pistachio spread, phyllo dough and marshmallows for the Dubai chewy cookie that became popular late last year. Monthly sales in December last year and January this year rose more than 50% from the previous year’s monthly average.

Profitability did not keep pace. The e-commerce business posted an operating loss of 319 million won in 2025. Cellid fully impaired the 887 million won in goodwill recognized when it acquired For Baker. The company determined that the carrying amount of the cash-generating unit exceeded its recoverable amount of 444 million won.

On a companywide basis, the operating loss in 2025 was 11.3 billion won. Cash to fund research and development came from shareholders. Cellid raised 17.5 billion won through a shareholder-priority public offering in 2023 and 23.1 billion won through a rights offering to shareholders in August 2024. In May last year, it also issued 8.4 million shares at an issue price of 2,415 won, conducting a capital increase worth 20.3 billion won. The number of shares outstanding increased to 29.5 million.

40% operating margin from cholera vaccine

EuBiologics’ income statement follows a different script. In 2025, it recorded revenue of 149.2 billion won and operating profit of 60.7 billion won. Its operating margin was 40.7%, and net income was 48.7 billion won.

The growth curve is also steep. The company, which posted revenue of 39.4 billion won and an operating loss of 7.4 billion won in 2021, increased revenue 3.8-fold in four years. Its selling, general and administrative expense ratio fell from 57.2% in 2021 to the mid-15% range.

The driver is EuBiCol, an oral cholera vaccine. After passing the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification (PQ) assessment, it is supplied to procurement markets operated by international organizations such as UNICEF, with demand linked to outbreaks in Africa and South Asia. On the 16th of last month, the company disclosed a 29.8 billion won contract for shipments to Bangladesh. The amount is equivalent to 19.97% of 2025 revenue, with delivery scheduled within two months.

The company has no debt. At the end of last year, cash and cash equivalents totaled 74.8 billion won, with no borrowings. Its debt-to-equity ratio is about 30%, and it plans to fund a plant expansion worth 111.5 billion won through 2028 with its own funds.

Quarterly results, however, fluctuate. Separate revenue in the first quarter of 2026 was 15.6 billion won, down 60.4% from the same period a year earlier, while operating profit fell 87.0%. This is because revenue is concentrated in the second half, with 40% generated in the first half and 60% in the second half, due to international-organization procurement schedules. The company expects a recovery beginning in the second quarter, based on the 60 million doses secured from UNICEF.

The competitive landscape is also expected to change. Industry observers expect Bharat Biotech’s oral cholera vaccine Hillchol to enter the public market in the fourth quarter of this year.

Both pipelines depend on their ‘next card’

Cellid’s remaining pillar is Cellibax, an anticancer immunotherapy vaccine platform. The company is conducting trials of BVAC-C for cervical cancer and BVAC-E6E7 for head and neck cancer, and on the 19th of last month it was selected for a project under the National New Drug Development Program. The project involves identifying lead compounds targeting HPV types 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58 and will run for 24 months.

Cellid CEO Chang-yul Kang explained, "About 20% of HPV-induced cancers are positive for HPV types 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58, but there is no therapeutic vaccine research targeting these types either domestically or internationally." On the 9th of this month, Kang acquired an additional 7,000 shares, increasing his stake to 8.34% (2,461,311 shares).

EuBiologics is moving from public-vaccine revenue into premium vaccines. On the 27th of this month, it disclosed the results of a domestic Phase 1 trial of EuRSV, a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate. In the trial of 100 adults aged 19 to 80 years, no serious adverse drug reactions occurred, and antibody responses remained higher than those in the placebo group after the second dose.

The company will receive the clinical trial report for its shingles vaccine in September and plans to submit a clinical trial application for its Alzheimer disease therapeutic vaccine in the third quarter. It has set a target of 200 billion won in revenue in 2028, combining 100 billion won from cholera vaccines and 100 billion won from new vaccines.

The gap reflected in disclosures over the past month

The disclosures issued by the two companies during the month since the end of last month also diverged. Cellid filed four reports on the ownership status of specific securities by executives and major shareholders, two corrections to filings on the granting of stock options, and one decision to provide collateral to another party. Most concerned changes in ownership, financing and compensation.

During the same period, EuBiologics disclosed the signing and correction of a single sales and supply contract, the results of the RSV vaccine clinical trial, a report on the acquisition status under a trust agreement for treasury shares, and the holding of an investor-relations presentation. New orders, clinical development and shareholder returns appeared side by side.

The market valuations have diverged accordingly. EuBiologics’ market capitalization is 292.5 billion won, with a price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 7.06 and a PBR of 1.66. Cellid is trading at less than half of its net asset value.

The two companies are targeting the same market. Cellid’s next-quarter test will be how it revives its COVID-19 vaccine, for which only safety data remain, through a new clinical strategy. For EuBiologics, the test will be how much it can diversify its dependence on a single cholera vaccine product through premium vaccines.