Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

Simcere Pharmaceutical Group (SCR) Q2 2009 Earnings Call August 18, 2009 8:00 AM ET

Executives

Jinsheng Ren - CEO
Peng Wang - CSO
Frank Zhao - CFO

Analysts

Shaojing Tong - Bank of America-Merrill Lynch
James Tong - Roth Capital
Bin Li - Morgan Stanley
Katherine Lu - Oppenheimer
Hongbo Lu - Piper Jaffray
Ding Ding - SIG

Operator

Welcome to the Simcere Pharmaceutical Group second quarter 2009 Earnings Call. Our second quarter 2009 results were released earlier today and are available on the company's website, as well as on web newswire services. In addition, an archive webcast of this conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website, at www.simcere.com.

Joining today's call are Mr. Jinsheng Ren, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Frank Zhao, our Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Xiaojin Yin, our Senior Vice President of R&D and Dr. Peng Wang, our Chief Scientific Officer.

Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our results may be materially different from the views expressed today. A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public filings with the SEC. Simcere does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

I will now turn the call over to Simcere's CEO, Mr. Jinsheng Ren.

Jinsheng Ren

[Foreign Language]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's earnings call. Simcere's fundamentals remained stable during the second quarter, while our sales continued to face pressure. On the whole, we are unsatisfied with our second quarter results.

While gross margin for the quarter was stable, total revenues and gross profit declined