WhereIsAtlas · Pharmaceuticals

Ranbaxy Laboratories

The "Indian Pfizer" that built a generic-drug empire on fabricated data — and paid a record $500 million fine

Defunct — India's largest generic drug maker, once a national hero of affordable medicine, pleaded guilty to data-fraud felonies in 2013 and was absorbed into Sun Pharma — a cautionary tale of a miracle of public health built on a foundation of lies.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was founded in 1961 in India and grew into the country's largest generic drug manufacturer — a company celebrated as an "Indian Pfizer" that would make lifesaving medicines affordable to billions. Under a brash, ultra-stylish heir, Malvinder Mohan Singh, it expanded across four continents, becoming one of the most important suppliers of cheap drugs in the world.

But the empire was built on a foundation of lies. A global audit by information scientist Dinesh Thakur found that Ranbaxy was systematically fabricating the data used to prove its drugs were safe and equivalent to brand-name medications. Scientists substituted lower-purity ingredients, faked dissolution tests, backdated documents in steam rooms to make them look aged, and even crushed up brand-name pills to test in place of their own failing formulations. Thakur's team estimated Ranbaxy had faked over half the dossiers it submitted to the US FDA.

When a boardroom presentation laid the fraud bare, instead of ordering a recall, an executive asked whether the data could simply be buried. Thakur fled to the United States, went undercover, and eventually filed a sealed whistleblower lawsuit. Federal agents raided Ranbaxy's US offices, and in May 2013 the company pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts and agreed to pay a $500 million fine — the largest ever at the time for a drug fraud case. In 2014 the tarnished company was absorbed by Sun Pharma. The whistleblower, Dinesh Thakur, was paid $48 million and became a hero in the United States — and an anti-national pariah at home.

Quick facts

Founded
1961, India
Founder
Ranbaxy dynasty (Singh family)
Peak
India's largest generic drug maker
The fraud
Faked data & dissolution tests for FDA claims
Dinesh Thakur's estimate
50%+ of FDA dossiers faked
Guilty plea
May 13, 2013
Fine
$500 million (largest drug-fraud fine to date)
Whistleblower award
$48 million to Dinesh Thakur
Absorbed
Sun Pharma, 2014

Sources

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