Fortune Recognizes Female Health Company as One of America's Fastest-Growing Small...( CHICAGO July 7 /- The Female Health C...),Health

CHICAGO, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Female Health Company (FHC) (Nasdaq-CM: FHCO) today announced that Fortune has ranked FHC eighth among the top 100 fastest-growing publicly traded small companies in America. Fortune's annual top-100 list rates companies with revenues of less than $200 million according to their annualized revenue growth and their total return to investors.

"We're thrilled that Fortune has recognized the core strengths and growth potential of Female Health Company's business model," said FHC President and CEO, O.B. Parrish. "We believe that we have built a strong private company dedicated to achieving an essential social mission - providing women with access to the female condom, the only safe and effective method of HIV prevention that women can initiate and control."

Fortune's ninth-annual review of America's top-100 small businesses placed FHC first among emerging healthcare companies, and it ranked Female Health first among small publicly traded companies based in Illinois.

The magazine also profiles FHC in a special feature article that highlights the company's recent success in developing a lower-cost, second-generation female condom (the FC2 Female Condom(R)) and winning regulatory approval for FC2 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and clearance by the World Health Organization (WHO) for purchase by U.N. agencies. Reporter Elaine Appleton notes that sizable increases in U.S. funding for AIDS prevention under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and FC2's distinction as the only woman-initiated HIV prevention method currently available, have helped to stimulate rapid growth in FC2 sales.

In 2008, FHC sold 34.7 million female condom units in 93 countries, a 34 percent increase in sales from 2007. Company revenues also rose 33 percent to $25.6 million, while net income grew 215 percent - to $4.8 million.