Revenue during the quarter dropped 5.45 percent to $40.54 million from $42.88 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 221 basis points over the previous year period to 86.22 percent. Total expenses were 74.22 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 70.63 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 360 basis points in operating margin to 25.78 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $10.45 million, compared with $12.60 million in the previous year period.

Friedhelm Blobel, PhD, SciClone’s chief executive officer, commented: "We are pleased with our performance in the third quarter and year to date, which is in line with our expectations and reflects the value and continued growth potential of our core business, led by ZADAXIN. ZADAXIN continues to significantly out-perform the growth rate of the China pharmaceuticals market, with double-digit volume growth. The decrease in revenue was in line with our expectations, and predominantly reflects a stabilizing overall growth rate of China’s pharmaceuticals market, in the range of 6%-9%, and pricing pressure at the provincial level. We continue to expect that pricing pressures on revenue in 2016 will be offset, at least in significant part, through sharing of the burden with our China distributor and through our strategies to increase volume. Moreover, we are pleased with the continuing strong cash generation of our business."

For financial year 2016, SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc expects revenue to be in the range of $158 million to $163 million. The company projects diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $0.78 to $0.82 on adjusted basis.