Ranbaxy products in Malaysia safe to consume

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry assured the public that Ranbaxy products were safe from possible glass particle contamination.

Its deputy health minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said only the generic version of cholesterol busting drug Lipitor manufactured in India was affected.

“The public only have to worry if we import the product from India,” she told The New Straits Times yesterday after a confirmation with the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau.

She said that according to the bureau, Ranbaxy products registered here were manufactured in its factory at Sungai Petani.

“Since it is manufactured locally, there is nothing to worry about,” she said, adding that Ranbaxy products here were not affected and need not be taken off the shelves.

It was earlier reported that Indian drug giant Ranbaxy ceased production of its generic version of cholesterol busting drug Lipitor until it probed the issue of “possible” glass particles in some consignments.

On Nov 9, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) informed customers in a statement on its website of a voluntary recall by Ranbaxy of some lots of its atorvastatin tablets, the generic version of Lipitor.

The medicine, packaged in bottles of 90 and 500 tablets, were recalled “due to possible contamination with very small glass particles similar to the size of a grain of sand”, the statement said.

It was understood that “Ranbaxy decided to stop making atorvastatin until the company has thoroughly investigated the cause of the contamination and remedied the problem,” the US agency said.

In the United States, the demand for the cholesterol lowering drug was a big boost to Ranbaxy’s sales.

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By ELVINA FERNANDEZ