Ranbaxy up on restart of Atorvastatin production in the US

Moneycontrol Bureau

Ranbaxy shares rose over 4 percent in morning trade after the drug maker said it has resumed production of the drug substance for its Atorvastatin cholesterol lowering drug in United States.

It had recalled some batches of Atorvastatin, which is a generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor, in November 2012, stating that could contain small glass particles about less than 1mm in size. The company owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo had said that it was a voluntary recall in the US market related to 10mg, 20mg and 40mg dosage strengths, packaged in 90s and 500 count bottles with respect to certain lot numbers and didn't affect the tablets in 80mg strength.

"We are working with the US Food and Drugs Administration and have identified and implemented multiple corrective and preventive actions. As a part of the first step in initiating the manufacturing process to resume supplies to the US market, we have commenced the production of the drug substance for our Atorvastatin product," Ranbaxy said in a notice to stock exchanges on Monday.

HSBC upgraded Ranbaxy to "overweight" from "underweight" saying its re-entry in the generic Lipitor market and the approval to resume manufacturing at Ohm's Labs in the US are key positive catalysts.

The recent correction in the stock was also a reason for the upgrade.

At 10:10 hrs, Ranbaxy shares were up 3.8 percent at Rs 429.40 on NSE. Since the company announced the drug recall on Nov 23, the stock has tumbled over 19 percent.