Pien Tze Huang Profit Falls 24% in Second Straight Decline

Pien Tze Huang, the Fujian drugmaker investors nicknamed China's "medicine Moutai," reported a 24.22% drop in first-half net profit on Aug. 28, extending a slide that first showed up in its books a year earlier.

Revenue for the six months came to 4.573 billion yuan, down 14.98% from a year earlier, the company said in its interim filing. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 1.093 billion yuan; stripped of one-off items, profit dropped 27.41% to 1.055 billion yuan. It is the second consecutive half-year decline in both lines, following the company's first-ever full-year double drop in 2025.

The signature product — liver-treatment tablets and capsules sold under the Pien Tze Huang name — brought in 2.348 billion yuan, down 18.92%. Their gross margin actually rose 1.27 percentage points to 62.77%, meaning the drop came from fewer units sold rather than discounting.

The company's pharmaceutical distribution arm, which resells other firms' drugs and now makes up roughly 37% of total revenue, posted a gross margin of just 8.24%. Selling expenses climbed 27.5% to 279 million yuan even as revenue shrank, and accounts receivable rose 35.14% to 1.018 billion yuan. Operating cash flow jumped 332.58% to 1.625 billion yuan, which the company linked to reduced raw-material purchasing.

The company and its cosmetics subsidiary are both awaiting a re-review of their high-tech enterprise certification, which currently lets them pay a preferential 15% corporate tax rate. A less favorable outcome would raise the tax bill in future filings.