Sales of Ranbaxy Threatened by Third FDA Ban

Sept. 17, 2013

A third Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd plant in India has been hit by a U.S. import ban over quality concerns, dealing a blow to the company's turnaround plans and threatening to hurt new launches and sales of medicines to its largest market.

With the latest FDA action, all three Ranbaxy plants in India that are dedicated to the U.S. market, which accounts for more than 40 percent of its sales, have now been barred from shipping to the United States, a company source told Reuters.

The ruling triggered the worst single-day fall in Ranbaxy's stock, wiping off a third of its market value or $1 billion on Monday, and brokerage downgrades on worries of prolonged delays to high-yielding product launches in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed an import alert on the Mohali factory in northern India on Friday, saying the plant owned by India's biggest drugmaker by sales had not met "good manufacturing practices".

The FDA said it has evaluated the drug products that are manufactured at the Mohali facility and determined that it is unlikely the action will cause drug shortages in the U.S. Read more.