CytoSorbents Reports First Quarter 2021 Financial and Operational Results Total revenue increased to $10.6M. Q1 2021 CytoSorb product sales grew 24% to $10.1M versus $8.2M a year ago

CytoSorbents Reports First Quarter 2021 Financial

and Operational Results

Total revenue increased

to $10.6M. Q1 2021 CytoSorb product sales grew 24% to $10.1M versus $8.2M a year ago

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J.,

May 4, 2021 - CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO), a critical care leader using its CytoSorb

blood purification technology to treat life-threatening conditions in critically-ill and cardiac surgery patients around the world, reports

financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.

First Quarter 2021 Financial Results:

Q1 2021 Operating Highlights:

Dr. Phillip Chan, Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents

stated, "Product sales grew by a healthy 24% in Q1 2021 compared to a year ago, aided by 27% growth in our core non-COVID-19 business

and 79% growth in distributor and partner sales overall. We believe that Q1 2021 sales would have been even higher, but were hampered

for most of the quarter by restrictions and lockdowns throughout Europe in many of our core markets, coupled with rapidly declining new

COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations globally throughout the first two months of the quarter. COVID-19 related sales for Q1 2021 were

approximately $1.8M, down from an average of $2.6M in the prior three quarters. However, March brought another dreaded COVID-19 wave to

Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and India, resulting in a massive spike in new worldwide infections and a strengthening of COVID-19

related orders of CytoSorb, despite a continuation of lockdowns and restrictions."

"Once the COVID-19 pandemic

diminishes, we believe we will continue our multi-year cycle of sales growth based on the breadth and strength of our core

non-COVID-19 businesses in critical care and cardiac surgery and the growing body of evidence generated by our clinical programs.

The accelerated adoption of CytoSorb around the world that we are seeing due to COVID-19 and new exciting applications, such as liver

dialysis therapy and anti-thrombotic drug removal during cardiac surgery, are expected to accelerate this growth phase. Because of

this, we continue to invest in our commercialization team, new manufacturing facilities, and importantly, Company-sponsored clinical

studies designed to support inclusion of our therapy into global standard treatment guidelines."

"To this end, we have made excellent progress

in our clinical programs. The U.S. STAR-T trial is our current clinical priority, as we believe it provides the shortest, lowest risk,

and most visible path to potential U.S. regulatory approval. Our FDA conditional IDE approval gave us the green light to complete our

operational readiness activities and begin anticipated enrollment of the study in Q3 2021. We have already evaluated and received verbal

agreement from all of our clinical trial centers to participate in the study, selected a contract research organization, and established

a Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) and Clinical Evaluation Committee (CEC). We are now proceeding with clinical trial agreements

and ethics committee review at these trial sites. Most importantly, today we are pleased to announce STAR-T trial leadership by two seminal

figures in cardiovascular clinical research, Dr. Michael Mack and Dr. C. Michael Gibson. Their guidance and involvement in the study design

has already proven invaluable. We look forward to sharing more detail of the study once the IDE is fully approved."

"Meanwhile, we continue to make progress

on our other studies:

Dr. Chan concluded, "Finally, we recently

added a new warehouse and product distribution center in Berlin, Germany to help manage our increased international product volumes and

logistics. We are also excited to move forward with construction of our manufacturing facility and building improvements of our new corporate

headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. With a modest capital expenditure of $6-7M, this new production plant is expected to quintuple

our capacity to support $350-400M in sales, while helping to significantly improve our product gross margins and potential future profitability.

Pending COVID-19 restrictions, most of our non-manufacturing staff are expected to move into the new building during the summer, with

a staged transition of our manufacturing teams to the new building by the end of 2022 as the Princeton manufacturing facility is expected

to be completed, validated, and comes on line."

"Please join us on our earnings conference

call today, details for which are below."

Conference Call Details:

Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Time: 4:45 PM Eastern Time

Participant Dial-In: 1-877-451-6152

Conference ID: 13718834

Live Presentation Webcast: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=144427

It is recommended that participants dial in approximately 10 minutes

prior to the start of the call. There will also be a simultaneous live webcast of the conference call that can be accessed through the

following audio feed link: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=144427

An archived recording of the conference call

will be available under the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://cytosorbents.com/investor-relations/financial-results/.

Results of Operations

Comparison for the three months ended March

Revenue from product sales was approximately $10,143,000

in the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to approximately $8,156,000 in the three months ended March 31, 2020, an increase

of approximately $1,987,000, or 24%. This increase was driven by an increase in direct sales of approximately $608,000 resulting from

sales to both new customers and repeat orders from existing customers and an increase in distributor sales of approximately $1,379,000.

Sales to hospitals in the United States under the EUA granted by the FDA amounted to approximately $304,000 for the three months ended

March 31, 2021. Though difficult to quantitate, we estimate that approximately $1.8 million of total product sales in the first quarter

of 2021 was due to the demand for CytoSorb to treat COVID-19 patients. In addition, as a result of the increase in the average exchange

rate of the Euro to the U.S. dollar, 2021 product sales were positively impacted by approximately $790,000. For the three months ended

March 31, 2021, the average exchange rate of the Euro to the U.S. dollar was $1.21 as compared to an average exchange rate of $1.10 for

the three months ended March 31, 2020.

Grant income was approximately $455,000 for the

three months ended March 31, 2021 as compared to approximately $551,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of approximately

$96,000 or 17%. This decrease was a result of delays in grant related work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as our research and development

employees were either deployed to work-from-home status or reassigned to assist in activities related to increasing the production of

Total revenues were approximately $10,599,000

for the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to total revenues of approximately $8,707,000 for the three months ended March

31, 2020, an increase of approximately $1,892,000, or 22%.

For the three months ended March 30, 2021 and

2020, cost of revenue was approximately $2,751,000 and $2,385,000, respectively, an increase of approximately $366,000. Product cost of

revenues increased approximately $354,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2021 as compared to the three months ended March 31,

2020 primarily as a result of increased sales. Product gross margins were approximately 77% for the three months ended March 31, 2021

and approximately 76% for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The increase in the gross margin percentage in 2021 was due manufacturing

efficiencies achieved during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and the receipt of approximately $388,000 related to the Employee Retention

Tax Credit under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the "CARES Act"). These increases were offset by the

impact of costs related to prior years tariffs as a result of an audit by the German Customs Authorities. Excluding the non-recurring

negative impact of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 tariff adjustments of approximately $732,000 and the offsetting non-recurring positive impact

of the Employee Retention Tax Credit which were recorded in the first quarter of 2021, product gross margins were approximately 81% for

the three months ended March 31, 2021. Please see Note 6 to the financial statements for details related to this matter.

Research and Development Expenses:

For the three months ended March 31, 2021, research

and development expenses were approximately $2,282,000 as compared to research and development expenses of approximately $1,965,000 for

the three months ended March 31, 2021, an increase of approximately $317,000. This increase was due to an increase in salaries related

to our clinical trial activities of approximately $333,000 due to the hiring of additional personnel dedicated to the design of protocol

and the anticipated start of a clinical trial in the United States for the removal of ticagrelor in emergent and urgent cardiac surgery

patients and an increase in non-grant related research and development costs of approximately $65,000. These increases were offset by

a decrease in new product development costs of approximately $81,000.

Legal, Financial and Other Consulting Expenses:

Legal, financial and other consulting expenses

were approximately $708,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to approximately $519,000 for the three months ended

March 31, 2020. The increase of approximately $189,000 was due to an increase in hiring fees of approximately $151,000 due to the hiring

of certain senior level personnel and an increase in consulting fees of approximately $111,000 primarily related to certain financial