| Price cuts by state to trim drug firm's earnings |
BEIJING, Feb. 5 -- Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, China's second-biggest drug maker by market value, expects profit to fall this year, mainly because of drug prices cut imposed by China's main economic planning body.
Harbin Pharmaceutical's sales declined, and market share was reduced after the National Development and Reform Commission cut drug prices three times since the start of 2006, the company said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. It didn't specify how much it expects sales or profit to fall.
In the most recent move, the NDRC cut prices on 354 types of drugs and medicine, by 20 percent on average, the company said in the filing. The company also cited rising costs of raw materials and energy and increasing competition as reasons for its profit to decline, Bloomberg News reported.
The company said it plans to raise 150 million U.S. dollars in a share sale this year, the South China Morning Post said on January 19, citing unidentified people. The shares will be traded in Hong Kong.
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