(Yicai Global) Oct. 16 -- Huahai Pharmaceutical's stock price closed 7 percent higher after the drugmaker announced strong preliminary nine-month earnings results and the European Union reissued it with a key trading license.

The shares [SHA:600521] ended at CNY16.60 (USD2.34) each after earlier climbing by as much as 10 percent, the maximum allowed in a single day under exchange rules. So far this week, the Zhejiang province-based company's stock has gained more than 12 percent.

Net profit jumped between 96 percent and 115 percent in the nine months through September thanks to higher product prices and elevated income from technical services, the firm said yesterday. It expects to have made in the region of CNY500 million (USD70.4 million) to CNY550 million.

The EU has cleared the way for two of Huahai Pharma's products -- active ingredients for Irbesartan and Losartan Potassium -- to resume shipments to the region, the company said today. Sales of the products in Europe last year stood at CNY162 million (USD22.9 million), or 3.2 percent of the firm's total.

EU inspectors determined in September that the company's Linhai facility failed to employ good practices in its production of these precursors for the blood pressure medication Valsartan and accordingly revoked the export authorization for them, the European Medicines Agency reported on its official website.

The Council of Europe yesterday reissued its Certificate of Suitability to the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia for the two compounds.

Editor: Ben Armour