Cardax Inc.’s revenue soared last quarter as the nationwide launch of the company’s new anti-inflammatory product ZanthoSyn generated strong demand.
The Honolulu-based company, which began rolling out ZanthoSyn nationwide Aug. 10 at more than 3,200 General Nutrition Corp. stores, took in revenue of $322,000 in the third quarter. That was up from $66,237 in the second quarter and $11,160 in the third quarter of 2016 when the product was just getting introduced.
The revenue helped narrow the company’s loss to $363,156 from $482,438 in the year-earlier quarter. Cardax more than doubled its sales and marketing budget from the year-earlier quarter to $164,748 from $63,375.
Cardax, which didn’t have any revenue until the launch of ZanthoSyn, has lost $57.1 million since the company’s inception in March 2010.
| THIRD-QUARTER NET
$363,156
YEAR-EARLIER LOSS
$482,438
|
Last quarter’s revenue included both the initial national order of ZanthoSyn so that GNC could carry it nationwide, as well as increased sales of ZanthoSyn in Hawaii GNC stores. Cardax introduced ZanthoSyn in 29 Hawaii GNC stores in January before subsequently landing the national order from GNC.
“We are very pleased to see a strong trend of accelerating sales of ZanthoSyn,” Cardax President and CEO David Watumull said Tuesday in a statement. “We believe it reflects our successful sales and marketing strategy focused on increasing physician and consumer awareness of the anti-inflammatory health benefits of ZanthoSyn.”
Cardax brought ZanthoSyn to market in August 2016 after it received a GRAS (generally regarded as safe) designation as part of a Food and Drug Administration process that defined the product as a dietary supplement. The company initially made the product available over the counter through its website and sought to capitalize on relationships in the scientific and medical community to market the product. The company said clinical studies it has done on ZanthoSyn show the product has no side effects and is purer and more easily absorbed than natural astaxanthin. Cardax cannot sell the product as a medicine because the company’s health claims have not been fully evaluated by the FDA.
Astaxanthin is an anti-inflammatory naturally found in marine organisms, such as microalgae, crustaceans, salmon and trout. It is what gives the marine animals their color.
Watumull said increased capital from ZanthoSyn sales will fuel further growth and advance development of CDX-085, the company’s next-generation ZanthoSyn product.
In March, University of Hawaii and Cardax announced that CDX-085 showed the ability to activate the FOX03 gene in mice, which plays a role in long life spans.
In June the National Institutes of Health selected Cardax’s synthetic astaxanthin compound called CDX-085 for its anti-aging Interventions Testing Program.
Cardax said it had raised $4.1 million through the first nine months of the year to fund its research efforts, and plans to raise additional money to carry out its business plan.
The company’s stock fell 10.8 percent, or 4 cents, to close at 33 cents Tuesday. The financial results were announced about midway through the trading session. The company’s stock, which traded as high as 54 cents and as low as 7 cents over the past 12 months, is up 200 percent this year.
