Pharmaceutical Gone Wild; Ranbaxy Exposed

You have probably never heard of Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals. But I bet you are familiar with the drug Lipitor. Ranbaxy makes Lipitor, and is the world’s sixth largest producer of generic drugs. They serve customers in 150 countries and have manufacturing plants around the world.

Ranbaxy was recently fined $500 million dollars, and charged with seven counts of the following:

• Selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud
• Failure to report its drug did not meet specifications
• Making intentionally false statements to the government

The Department of Justice wrapped up a nearly 10 year case about their illegal, fraudulent and corrupt business practices. A former employee, who is receiving $48 million as a whistle-blower, bolstered the case against Ranbaxy.

Fortune magazine recently published this story, an impeccably researched long-form article by Katherine Eban about Ranbaxy’s case.

You should take the time to read it. It is lengthy, but reads like a novel. Unfortunately, it is not fiction

It is hard to imagine a drug manufacturing company doing anything more egregious.

I worked in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research for a year, and many of the technical aspects of this story were familiar to me. We interacted with Indian generic drug companies frequently, but I refuse to lump all generic drug companies together as corrupt. I am sure there are plenty who follow the laws and procedures, developing wonderful products that benefit humanity.

Ranbaxy was the opposite. They were phenomenally, sickeningly, awful.
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