Ranbaxy slips nearly 5% as US pulls approval for AstraZeneca and Roche drugs

NEW DELHI: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd slipped as much as 4.7 per cent in trade on Friday, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked a tentative approval for Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd to make a cheap copy of AstraZeneca Plc's heartburn drug Nexium, after its Indian plants were banned over quality control issues.

The FDA has also stripped Ranbaxy of tentative approval and six-month exclusivity for a copy of Roche Holding AG's antiviral Valcyte, a fresh blow to the Indian company that has been hit by a raft of regulatory bans over poor production quality, Reuters reported.

At 09:20 a.m.; Ranbaxy Laboratories was trading 3.7 per cent lower at Rs 629.40. It hit a low of Rs 623 and a high of Rs 634 in trade today.

The US regulator has banned output from all Ranbaxy's India-based plants under a wider scrutiny of the country's $15 billion pharmaceutical industry, which is the largest supplier of generic medicines to the United States, added the report.