As regards global markets, most Asian indices closed weak today while European indices have also opened in the red. The rupee was trading at Rs 46.66 to the dollar at the time of writing.
Most pharma stocks closed weak today with leading the pack of losers. Ranbaxy closed lower by 5% today. This was seemingly on back of the news that the company has failed to address its.
The US regulator has asked the company to immediately assess the manufacturing practices at its plants that make drugs for the American market. It must be noted that Ranbaxy was already in trouble when two of its manufacturing plants at Poanta Sahib and Dewas were found to be violating the good manufacturing practices standards of the US FDA in 2008. As if that was not enough, Ranbaxy received another setback when the US FDA issued a warning letter for its manufacturing facility Ohm Laboratories in the US in December 2009. Ohm has meanwhile hired the services of PRTM, a global consulting firm, to provide expertise and advice on issues raised by the FDA. US accounted for around 25% of Ranbaxy's sales in 2008 and is an important market for the company. However, sales from this market have substantially fallen of late due to its impending issues with the US FDA which have been going on for some time now. Unless the company quickly finds some way to resolve these issues, performance of the US business will continue to remain under pressure.
