Ranbaxy rallies over 3% intraday as FDA approves Gurgaon & Romania R&D centres

NEW DELHI: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd rallied as much as 3.1 per cent in intraday trade on Thursday after reports suggested that US drug regulator inspected its two centres in Gurgaon & Romania R&D and cleared it.

Units of Ranbaxy's R&D centre at Gurgaon and its clinical research centre related to bioequivalence and bioavailabilty at Terapia Ranbaxy, its subsidiary in Romania, were inspected by the USFDA in March and cleared by it, two persons with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.

This comes after the Gurgaon-headquartered drugmaker was hit by several strictures last year and faced two import alerts by the FDA, which blocked it from shipping products from plants at Toansa and Mohali since September to the world's biggest drug market.

At the Romania site, inspected by FDA in late March, Ranbaxy is conducting studies for oral contraceptives meant for the US market.

The $4 billion deal between Sun and Ranbaxy will create the fifth-largest specialty generics company in the world and the largest drug maker in India. It will command a 9.3 per cent market share in the highly fragmented Rs 75,000-crore domestic drug market and hold a leadership position in 13 specialty segments by prescription share.