New product raises Cardax’s revenue

Cardax Inc.’s first full year of revenue from its new anti-inflammatory product produced robust results.

The Honolulu-based company, which launched ZanthoSyn in August 2016, was scheduled to announce today that it generated $610,323 in sales last year compared with $35,258 from its product’s limited release the year before.

The catalyst for the jump in revenue was the company’s purchase agreement with GNC Holdings Inc. to stock ZanthoSyn. The product became fully available in December in more than 3,000 of GNC’s health and nutrition stores nationwide. GNC’s initial purchase order was made during the third quarter.

Cardax, which didn’t have any revenue until ZanthoSyn came on the market, began its relationship with GNC in January 2017 when the product became available at 29 GNC stores in Hawaii.

ZanthoSyn was the top-selling product in Hawaii GNC stores in the fourth quarter, and overall for the three-month period, the company saw its revenue jump nearly fivefold to $114,235 from $24,098 in the year-earlier period.

“We are very pleased with the significant growth over the past year,” Cardax President and CEO David Watumull said in a statement. “In addition, our marketing program outside of Hawaii, focusing at first primarily on outreach to GNC store personnel and health-care professionals in California, is going well and we look forward to commenting further when we announce Q1 2018 results in May 2018.”

Cardax’s loss for 2017 widened to just under $2 million from a loss of $1.8 million in 2016 due to increased sales and marketing and partial restoration of pay to employees who had taken wage cuts. For the fourth quarter, the company’s loss widened to $788,199 from a loss of about $400,000. Since inception in March 2010, the company has a loss of about $58 million.

Chairman George Bickerstaff of Cardax called 2017 “a transformative year” for the company and said it reflects the viability of Cardax’s underlying strategy.

The company raised about $4 million in new capital during the year.

“Our progress provides a strong foundation for achieving our mission to become the inflammatory health, anti-aging leader,” Bickerstaff said.

In February, Cardax announced that it signed a purchase agreement with Health Elite Club Ltd. of Hong Kong to distribute ZanthoSyn in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Those results will be reflected in future quarters.

The company’s stock closed unchanged Monday at 27 cents. Over the past 12 months, its shares closed as high as 54 cents on Aug. 29 and as low as 11 cents on March 28. The stock is up 68.8 percent so far this year.