Ranbaxy suspends API shipments from Toansa, Dewas plants

Japanese drug major Daichii Sankyo today said its subsidiary Ranbaxy Laboratories has temporarily suspended raw material shipments from its Toansa and Dewas facilities in order to evaluate quality control systems.

"Ranbaxy has temporarily suspended shipments of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) produced at its Toansa and Dewas plants in India," Daiichi Sankyo said in a statement.

The suspension of export from the two plants comes after US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) banned import of products from the Ranbaxy's Toansa plant last month, thereby halting the shipment of all the company's drugs to the US from India.

"Additionally, Ranbaxy has now voluntarily suspended all API shipments from both the Toansa and Dewas plants in order to allow for further evaluation and inspection of manufacturing processes and quality control systems," the Japanese drug maker, which acquired Ranbaxy in 2008, said.

A person in the know of the things said the suspension of shipments from the two plants would hit supplies to various other markets including Europe and India.

The shipments will be resumed once the processes and controls at these facilities are reconfirmed based on internal evaluations and inspections, Daiichi said.

Besides, Ranbaxy has also put in place a Quality and Integrity Committee in order to improve corporate governance, has been in operation from early this month, Daiichi added.

The Japanese drug maker said it would like to apologise to all its stakeholders for the inconvenience caused by the further suspension of API shipments.

"As Ranbaxy is one of our most important affiliates in the Group, Daiichi Sankyo is committed to continuing to offer full support for Ranbaxy to improve quality standards," it added.

In a separate statement, Ranbaxy said the voluntary decision to stop shipments from the two plants was taken as a precautionary measure to better allow the company to assess and review the processes and controls.

"The company will resume shipments after reassuring about the processes and controls at these facilities," it added.

In September last year, the USFDA had imposed an import alert on Ranbaxy's Mohali plant in Punjab for violating current good manufacturing norms.

The company's facilities at Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh have been under a US import alert since 2008.

Ranbaxy shares were trading at Rs 371.30 apiece on the BSE in afternoon trade, up 2.16 per cent from its previous close.