VANCOUVER, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc. today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2007, showing strong growth in sales and profits for its core antibiotic business. Meanwhile, the Company also announced the sale of its EPO operation to an unaffiliated party through a separate press release.
As the result of the EPO disposal, the Company will be focusing on core antibiotic business with vertical product lines covering intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulation drugs, which all grew strongly over the last quarters.
The sale momentum from Chemical Division that contains intermediates and API products actually started from the fourth quarter of last year, and continued through all three quarters of this year. As one of dominating producers of 7ACA, the Company further strengthened its market position and delivered 183% year-over-year revenue growth in Chinese market during the third quarter of 2007. Mainly driven by strong market demand, the Company realized 138 tons of sales in the third quarter, which was 99% of 140 tons of total production output. Meanwhile, the Company successfully increased its sales by 84% in China and by 66% in the international market for Clavulanic Acid, reflecting the strong market acceptance of our high production quality. Under the favorable market conditions, the Company realized a utilization rate of 93% for 7ACA and 80% for Clavulanic Acid. The higher facility utilization, combined with our continuous efforts in technology improvement, led to lowering of our per unit production costs. As a result, the Chemical Division’s gross margin increased to 27.57% in this quarter from 10.68% for the same period of 2006. Moreover, as previously disclosed, the Company has successfully established a new production line producing 7ACA using the biotech method, adding an additional annual production capacity of 120 tons 7ACA. Management believes that the increased capacity will enable the Company to promptly respond to the strong customer demand and gain further market share.
The Company also achieved substantial sales increase and improved gross margin for the Pharma Division that contains formulation business as the Company further expanded its market share in the Chinese market. During the third quarter, the sales increased by 266% to $5.59 million as compared to the same period of 2006, accounting for 24% of the total revenues of the Company. The total sales quantity reached 33 million units as compared to 20 million units in the second quarter and 15 million units in the first quarter of 2007.
Mainly due to the significant revenue growth, improved productivity and increased gross margins for all our products, net income from continuing operations for the third quarter increased 200% to $0.97 million from a net loss of $0.97 million for the same period of 2006. Net income from continuing operations for the nine months amounted to $2.12 million as compared to a net loss of $0.86 million for the same quarter of 2006. The net cash inflow generated from operating activities amounted to $2.08 million, which provided the Company greater flexibility to expand the operations in its core business. Meanwhile, due to the impact of a $2.64 million non-cash impairment charge of intangible assets and goodwill related to EPO disposal as disclosed in the separate press release dated November 14, 2007, the Company had a net loss of $1.61 million for the third quarter, which was the net of $0.97 million net income from continuing operations and $2.57 million net loss from discontinuing operations.
“The solid performance of our core antibiotic operation once again demonstrates the strength of our business model and our ability to achieve growth in revenues, profitability and cashflow,” said Mr. Yanlin Han, Chairman and CEO of the Company. “We are focusing our efforts in the antibiotic market which we intend to lead while showing a sustainable and growing profit. In addition, the Company is also actively exploring additional business opportunities in broadening its core antibiotic product offerings and increasing production capacities. We are confident that the benefits of all these initiatives will be reflected in the Company’s performance in the future.”
This press release contains forward looking statements, including but not limited to, that the Company will continue to experience growth in sales of its main products, that it will continue to be able to improve its product quality and efficiency, that it will continue to achieve continuous growth in business and profitability in the near future. These statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements, which only reflect the views of management as of the date hereof. The Company does not undertake the obligation to publicly revise these forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Readers should carefully review the risk factors and other factors described in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc., Maggie Deng, Telephone: (604) 669-8817; or North America Toll Free: 1-877-388-3784, Email: irdragon@dragonpharma.com, Website: http://www.dragonpharma.com
CONTACT: Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc., Maggie Deng, Telephone: (604)
669-8817; or North America Toll Free: 1-877-388-3784, Email:
irdragon@dragonpharma.com, Website: http://www.dragonpharma.com
