Wockhardt gets US import alert again; vet drugs this time

Troubled drug-maker Wockhardt received yet another setback on Tuesday when the US drugs regulator FDA issued an ‘import alert’ to its Chikalthana and Waluj units in Maharashtra.
The FDA described the alert as detention without physical examination of veterinary drugs from firms that failed its test of good manufacturing practices (GMPs).

Wockhardt management was not available for comment. There is little clarity on Wockhardt’s activities in the veterinary drugs segment. The company had, reportedly, sold its animal health division in 2009 to a French veterinary care company Vétoquinol for Rs 170 crore.

Industry experts, however, said it is possible that Wockhardt still may have been manufacturing veterinary drugs for the new owner on contract basis, and this activity may have come under the FDA scanner now.