Ranbaxy shares fall nearly 4% after U.S. drug recall

RanbaxyStock in pharmaceuticals giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd slipped as much as 3.8 per cent in early morning trade on Monday after the company confirmed that it was recalling nearly 64,000 bottles of the generic version of a cholesterol-lowering medicine in the United States.

Ranbaxy said it was withdrawing 64,626 bottles of Pfizer Inc. Lipitor drug atorvastatin calcium a pharmacist in the United States received a product complaint. The pharmacist received a complaint that a 20 milligram tablet was found in a sealed bottle marked for 10 milligram pills.

Gaurav Chugh, a spokesperson for the company said, "The actual recall happened in January this year. Other lot numbers, package sizes and strengths are not affected by this recall. Ranbaxy is proactively recalling the lots out of an abundance of caution, keeping the safety of its patients in mind."

At 9:20 a. m., Ranbaxy shares were trading down 2.9 per cent, underperforming a 0.3 per cent decline in the Nifty.

The largest Indian drugmaker is facing harsher scrutiny by U. S. regulators recalling of generic Lipitor in November 2012 for allegedly containing tiny glass particles. The U. S. regulators have so far banned certain products produced by Ranbaxy's four Indian facilities from entering the U. S. market.

Shares of Ranbaxy, which is majority owned by Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, has lost 18 per cent of their market value this year, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex has gained 3.5 per cent.