For the Year under Review, the Group recorded a turnover of HK$135.3 million, representing a decrease of 13.6% year-on-year. The decrease was mainly attributable to a weaker sales situation for one of the Group’s marketed drugs, namely Pinup®. The product faced keener price competitions across the marketplace where other market players lowered the product price, hence the sales was temporarily affected. However, sales of Pinup® had begun to pick up towards the end of the Year, thanks to its increased coverage to Guizhou, Xinjiang, Shaanxi and Hainan provinces and making the total provincial coverage to 26. The Group believes that Pinup® will enjoy a much better leverage after obtaining the BE approval, which was anticipated in 2020. Given that the Group’s major competitors who are engaged with price war in the market have not conducted BE study, obtaining the approval will allow the Group to enjoy numerous policy benefits during tendering and purchasing, thus it will further enhance the brand image and market advantage of the product. Also, the cooperation with Loymed Pharma will open up new sales channels and give rise to the revenue growth generated from Pinup®.
Cost of sales for the Year also decreased by 22.7% from HK$22.8 million in 2017 to HK$17.7 million in 2018. During the Year, gross profit was at HK$117.6 million, representing a decrease of approximately 12.0% from HK$133.6 million in 2017, mainly driven by the reduction in revenue. On the contrary, gross profit margin improved slightly from 85.4% in 2017 to 86.9% in 2018, led mainly by the increase of overall unit sales price of GeneTime®. Alongside our efforts for restructuring and re-organizing our sales team in order to achieve greater efficiency, the Group also expanded the number of sales team members. Hence the sales and distribution cost recorded an increase over the Year.
In 2018, the Group recorded a loss of HK$138.6 million with a basic loss per share of HK$2.24 cents for the Year.