China Pharma Holdings' revenue decreases 40% to $32.8 million in fiscal year 2013

China Pharma Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT: CPHI) ("China Pharma" or the "Company"), an NYSE MKT listed corporation with its fully-integrated specialty pharmaceuticals subsidiary based in China, today announced financial results for the year ended December 31, 2013.

Full Year Highlights

• Revenue decreased 40% to $32.8 million in fiscal year 2013 from $54.5 million in fiscal year 2012.
• Loss from operations was $18.6 million in fiscal year 2013 compared to income from operation of $5.9 million in 2012, a decrease of $24.5 million.
• Net loss was $20.0 million in fiscal year 2013 compared to net income of $4.6 million in 2012, a decrease of $24.6 million.  Loss per common share was 46 cents per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2013 compared with earnings of 11 cents per basic and diluted share in 2012.
• Gross loss margin was (1.5%) in fiscal year 2013, compared to gross profit margin of 26% in fiscal 2012. Without the effect of inventory obsolescence, management estimates that our gross profit would have been approximately 29% in both 2013 and 2012.

"China provides a unique opportunity to its pharmaceutical industry; however, real challenges remain: from compulsory new GMP upgrading requirement and rising pricing pressure to extended regulatory review time for new medical production applications, which temporally impacted our performance negatively in 2013," said Ms. Zhilin Li, China Pharma's Chairman and CEO. Ms Li continued, "we have maintained a conservative stance in general sales and credit policies in 2013 in order to ensure the capital requirements for new GMP upgrading requirements, and control and improve the condition of our accounts receivable. As of January 1, 2014, we have suspended our dry powder injectable and liquid injectable production lines due to the failure to meet the new GMP upgrading deadline. However, we have already completed the overall architectural structure of our new facility, and are in the process of installation and commissioning the equipment. We are looking forward to submitting the application for new GMP certificate in the second quarter of 2014."

Full Year Results

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013 were $32.8 million, a decrease of 40% from revenues of $54.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012. This decrease primarily resulted from decreases in sales throughout all our product categories, especially our CNS Cerebral &Cardio Vascular products (decreased by roughly $8 million) and our Anti-Viro/Infectious & Respiratory products (decreased by roughly $6.3 million).

Gross loss for the year ended December 31, 2013 was $0.5 million, compared to gross profit of $14.1 million in 2012, a decrease of $14.6 million. Gross loss margin was (1.5%) in 2013, compared to gross profit margin of 25.8% for 2012. Without the effect of inventory obsolescence, management estimates that our gross profit would have been approximately 29% in both 2013 and 2012. The Healthcare Reform instituted by the Chinese government since 2009 contains pricing controls, which have resulted in margin compression in most pharmaceutical products on the market today, especially in the generic space where many of our products are sold. Going forward, we expect to see continued pricing pressures on most products, while new products could help to support overall gross margin once they are launched. We launched Candesartan in November 2013 and started its marketing activities.

Selling, general and administrative expenses in 2013 were $5.7 million, or 17.3% of sales, compared to $6.4 million, or 11.8% of sales, in 2012. For the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company's research and development expense was $1.7 million, compared to $0.4 million in 2012. The increase in R&D expense was mainly due to the fact that the Company has started to take a dominant position in the research activities of formulation screening, new technology exploration, technical criteria improvement in 2013. We expect this new model will improve our exploration channels for pipeline products.

For the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company's bad debt expense was $10.8 million, compared to a bad debt expense of $0.9 million in 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2013, we implemented a one-time trade receivables collection discount program to accelerate the collection of old accounts receivable. Management negotiated settlement offers with certain customers from which we had accounts receivable balances of approximately $8.0 million that were greater than one year past due. The offers to these customers were comprised of discounts ranging from 15% to 30% of the total past due balance in exchange for payment of the remaining balance in full by December 31, 2013. As a result of this program, we were able to collect cash of approximately $5.85 million after granting those customers discounts totaling $2.1 million. The collection discounts were recorded as bad debt expense.

Operating loss was $18.6 million in 2013 compared to operating income of $5.9 million in 2012, a decrease of $24 million. The lower operating income in 2013 reflects lower revenue, higher inventory obsolescence and higher bad debt expenses in 2013.

For the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, our income tax rate was 15%. Income tax expense was $1.1 million and $1.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. We renewed our "National High-Tech Enterprise" status ("National HT Status") from the PRC government in the third quarter of 2013. With this designation, for the years ending December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, we will continue to enjoy a preferential tax rate of 15% which is notably lower than the statutory income tax rate of 25%.

Net loss for the year 2013 was $20.0 million, or $0.46 per basic and diluted share, compared to net income of $4.6 million, or $0.11 per basic and diluted share in 2012. The decrease in net income was mainly due to the decrease in revenue, increase in inventory obsolescence, and increase in bad debt expense.

Financial Condition

As of December 31, 2013, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $6.0 million compared to $4.0 million as of December 31, 2012. Year-over-year, working capital decreased to $72 million in 2013 from $98 million in 2012 and the current ratio was 7.0 times in 2013, decreased from 7.7 times in 2012.

Our accounts receivable balance decreased to $45.1 million at December 31, 2013 from $66.2 million at December 31, 2012. Our receivables decreased due to our enhanced collection efforts, increased allowance and the trade receivables collection discount program implemented in the fourth quarter of 2013 to encourage the collection of accounts receivable aged over one year, and a decrease in sales.

For the year ended December 31, 2013, cash flow from operating activities was $8.6 million, as compared to $3.6 million in 2012.

In addition, we entered an eight-year construction loan facility with a bank on June 21, 2013. The total loan facility amount is RMB 80,000,000 (approximately $13 million). We utilized RMB 76,283,350 (approximately $12.4 million) of the facility through March 7, 2014. The cash flow generated from operating activities and the newly executed construction loan facility is being used to fund the construction of our new GMP upgrading project.

Pipeline Update

As of December 31, 2013, China Pharma had various pipeline drugs in different stages of active development. Some of these are highlighted below:

• Antibiotic Combination - We completed the Phase I clinical trials of our novel cephalosporin-based combination antibiotic. We are currently in Phase II of the clinical trial, due to the increasedregulatory requests for clinical works.
• ŸRosuvastatin - Rosuvastatin is a generic form of Crestor, a drug for the treatmentof high blood cholesterol levels. Clinical trials for this generic drug were completed in the fourth quarter of 2010 and we have submitted an application for production approval, and are performing supplemental trials of related materials pursuant to the new criteria requirements.
• Heart Disease Drug - We have an oral solution for the treatment of coronary heart diseasein our new product pipeline. This product comes with a patented Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formula and is currently in Phase III clinical trials following the improved regulatory criteria for clinical works.