Drugs sold in Indian markets safe, Ranbaxy tells SC

New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories on Friday insisted drugs sold by it in the Indian market are safe and effective and the company complies with country’s regulations, even as the Supreme Court issued a notice to it.

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“Ranbaxy is compliant with all the requirements under Indian Law and maintains that all the drugs sold by the company in the Indian market are safe and effective,” a company spokesperson said. When asked about the company’s reaction to the Supreme Court notice the spokesperson said: “Ranbaxy has not yet received any notice to file reply from the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. If the company receives a notice, it will respond appropriately to the observations.” The Supreme Court today issued notice to Centre and Ranbaxy Laboratories on a PIL seeking cancellation of the company’s licence and a CBI probe against it for allegedly supplying adulterated drugs in the country. Agreeing to examine the allegations, a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, however, refused to pass any interim order for restraining the company from manufacturing drugs. The Court passed the order on a PIL filed by advocate ML Sharma seeking action against the company for allegedly supplying sub standard and adulterated drugs. In May last year, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to ‘felony charges’ related to the manufacture and distribution of certain ‘adulterated’ drugs made at the Dewas and Paonta Sahib units and agreed to pay  $500 million to US authorities as penalty. This followed a series of actions by the USFDA, which in 2008 banned the import of 30 generic drugs produced by Ranbaxy at the two plants for violation of manufacturing norms. Currently, all the four plants of the company have been banned by the USFDA from exporting drugs to the US market for violation of manufacturing norms. PTI