AstraZeneca says Nexium pills with Ranbaxy ingredient are safe to use

While most drugs from India are generics, sometimes Big Pharma uses Indian products for their top brands, like AstraZeneca's ($AZN) Nexium. The U.K.-based drugmaker told Bloomberg that its stomach pills on the market are safe to use and that it is no longer buying any of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for it from the Ranbaxy Laboratories plant that the FDA banned in January, Bloomberg reports. As AstraZeneca pointed out, despite the ban, the FDA did not recall any Ranbaxy products. The FDA banned the facility after inspectors found it was retesting products until it got the test results needed for them to pass and then deleting the failed tests from computers. AstraZeneca said it was already getting some of the API from a facility in France and is now sourcing it from there exclusively. "As we would in response to any regulatory action of this sort, we have carried out rigorous quality-control checks to ensure U.S. Nexium meets our quality standards," spokeswoman Vanessa Rhodes told Bloomberg. Story | More