India’s Ranbaxy hit by FDA product ban at 4th Indian plant

By Toni Clarke and Sumeet Chatterjee WASHINGTON/MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd faces long delays and high costs in launching big-selling generic drugs in the United States after products from a fourth plant were banned from entering its main market due to manufacturing violations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's sanction is the latest in a series of regulatory rebukes for India's largest drugmaker by revenue since Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd took control of the company in 2008, and deals a further blow to the $12 billion Indian drug industry. The FDA said Ranbaxy is prohibited from making and selling pharmaceutical ingredients from its facility in Toansa in the northern state of Punjab, "to prevent substandard quality products from reaching U.S. consumers." The FDA ban on Ranbaxy's Toansa plant followed an inspection completed on January 11.