India court quashes lawsuit against Ranbaxy plants

Ranbaxy Laboratories has been fighting back against a number of problems in India that sprang from its guilty plea in May to U.S. charges. But one of those, a citizen's petition that asked the court to shut down two Ranbaxy plants named in the U.S. settlement, has been set aside. The India Supreme Court told petitioner M.L. Sharma that the court would not rule based on accusations made by U.S. authorities, the Financial Express reports. It said he could refile if he came up with some proof that Ranbaxy is currently doing something wrong in India. "Your entire argument is based on proceedings in US. We have no jurisdiction over it. Show us material that things are happening in India and it adversely affects right to life of people here," the justices wrote. The so-called public-interest litigation case is only one of several actions that have come up since the May settlement. Officials in India have said they will look into the charges made by U.S. authorities that Ranbaxy previously was manufacturing subpar drugs and hiding that fact from regulators. A major pharmacy chain in India temporarily stopped providing Ranbaxy drugs until it got assurances from the company about their quality. Story | More