UK Crown court rejects charges against Ranbaxy

The two year old prosecution against the UK arm of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)  has been quashed by the English Crown Court.

The Court also declined an application by the SFO for permission to appeal to the English Court of Appeal, although the SFO retains a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal directly.

Welcoming the decision, Ranbaxy, India's top drug maker by sales, said, "We are a responsible company committed to providing high- quality generic medicines at affordable prices to patients throughout the world.

Ranbaxy (UK) was among five companies to be chargesheeted by Britain's SFO on charges of price-fixing in some of its penicillin-based antibiotics based on allegations of anti-competitive conduct in supplying penicillin-based antibiotics to UK government's National Health Service hospitals between 1996 and 2000.

Ranbaxy is currently battling charges by the US Justice Department that it sold substandard drugs. The department has filed a motion in a US district court against Ranbaxy alleging systematic fraudulent conduct and supplying fabricated information to the US FDA - a month after Daiichi Sankyo, Japan's third-largest drugmaker, agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Ranbaxy for around $4.6 billion.

Ranbaxy has blamed a multinational company of trying to scuttle its marger with the Japanese drug firm.