Washington, Jan 26 : US drug regulators have sought a "groundbreaking" injunction against Ranbaxy Laboratories to force the Indian drug major to correct long-standing violations at four of its manufacturing facilities.

The court-sanctioned agreement affects three of Ranbaxy's factories in India and its wholly owned subsidiary Ohm Laboratories in Gloversville, New York. The Department of Justice filed the decree on behalf of the Food and Drug Administration.

India pharmaceutical major, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has received the approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to launch the generic version of drug Lipitor in the US market.

On Friday, it has been reported by Ranbaxy Laboratories, which is considered as India's largest drug maker that its shares have been down by 2.51% in the second quarter. They have met a 25% fall in their net profit during the period.

Recently, it has come into knowledge that this Gurgaon- based company, in order to look out for a solution for its regulatory issues, is working with the US authorities of Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice. And as told by the Company, these negotiations with the regulators are doing well.

New Delhi, Aug 5 : Pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories Friday reported a decline of 25 percent in its net profit of Rs. 243.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as against Rs. 325.7 crore in the like period of last year.

According to the company, the results were incomparable because of varying contributions of First to File' (FTF) in the overall results. FTF is a procedure used in the US for granting exclusive marketing rights for six months to companies that file for the patent of new generic drugs.

US FDA issue resolution- key going ahead
Ranbaxy’s Q4CY10 results disappointed on the base OPM and lack of clarity on the resolution of US FDA issue. We believe the base OPM of the business could languish around 7-8% till the company is able to resolve the US FDA issue. Further due to presence of Watson as an AG, Ranbaxy could witness a healthy competitive scenario during the generic Lipitor exclusivity. We recommend HOLD on the stock with an 18-month target price of Rs480 valuing the core business at Rs372/share (22x CY12E recurring earnings) and the FTF pipeline at Rs108/share.

Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories on Monday claimed that its South Africa-based joint venture, Sonke Pharmaceuticals, has clinched a deal of 913.5 million rand ($133 million)which involved supplying anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for protection against AIDS.

Anti-retroviral drugs are offered to protect against infection by retroviruses HIV.

The South African government has released an amount of 4.28 billion rand national ARV drugs deal prior to this.

Muted performance, Maintain BUY with TP Rs792 Ranbaxy reported Q3CY10 results that were largely impacted through one-offs and forex. Net sales grew 10% underpinned by FTFs in the US and robust domestic formulation sales. Recurring EBITDA declined ~10% excluding inventory provisions and was below our expectations. However, higher other income and lower interest expense helped adjusted PAT (excluding net of forex) to grow 66% to Rs1.8bn. Management seems confident on US FDA resolution on Poanta Sahib and Dewas facilities. We remain sanguine on the resolution.

Ranbaxy Laboratories announced today that Arun Sawhney has taken the post of Managing Director of the company. He has in the process replaced Atul Sobti who had resigned on August 12.

Arun Sawhney was earlier the President of the global pharmaceutical business of the company. He has now taken over as the Managing Director and will hold the post for duration of three years, according to Ranbaxy.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, on Tuesday posted its fourth straight quarter profit. For the period between January to March, the drug maker saw is net profit touch Rs. 9.6 billion. This is higher than what the market had expected it to achieve. Last year, the figure was Rs. 7.6 billion.

Higher than past sales mostly in the US market and favorable foreign exchange situations were the reasons cited for the good result.

The sales increased by 65 per cent to become Rs. 24.9 billion as against Rs. 15.6 billion in the last quarter.

Ranbaxy Laboratories is looking forward to achieve some big achievements in the coming two years. Its parent company, Daiichi is confident that Ranbaxy Labs will end all the issues regarding manufacturing facilities and other regulatory issues with US FDA, very soon.

In September, 2008 the American drug regulator had banned the sale of some of the drugs manufactured by Ranbaxy. Around 30 drugs were banned in the US. The regulator has accused Ranbaxy of using defective manufacturing process for several life-saving drugs.

On Friday, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. informed that it is eyeing to reach the $3 billion target in consolidated turnover by 2012. The details were not given to the BSE.

The company said that setting the target is a part of its medium-term business plan. The majority stake in the drug maker is owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo.

Daiichi too, is trying to increase the targets for its company. In a statement made on Friday, it said that it is planning to double its annual operating profits.

Stock market analysts have suggested investors to 'sell' Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd stock as there are full chances of a downward trend in this stock.

According to them, investors can sell the stock below Rs 501 with a strict stop loss of Rs 505 to achieve an intraday target between Rs 498-495.
 
Today, the shares of the company opened at Rs 504.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 519.40 and a low of Rs 133.15 on BSE.

Karvy also suggested that if the stock fell below Rs 493, it may see more weakness.

Stock market analyst Ashwani Gujral has maintained 'Buy' rating on Ranbaxy Laboratories Lab to achieve a target of Rs 455 in 4-5 trading sessions.

According to Mr. Gujral, interested traders can buy the stock with a strict stop loss of Rs 400.

Today, the shares of the company opened at Rs 424 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 426.85 and a low of Rs 133.15 on BSE.

Daiichi Sankyo, which holds a majority equity stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories, announced that it will market some of Ranbaxy's generic medication in Japan.