Wockhardt shares slump over 6% on recall of some drugs

Shares of pharma firm Wockhardt today ended over 6 per cent lower after the company announced recalling select drugs in the US, manufactured at its two units at Chikalthana and Waluj in Maharashtra, which were under import restrictions from the USFDA.
After falling 11.2 per cent to Rs 1,181 in intra-day trade on the BSE, shares of the company finally ended at Rs 1,243.35, down 6.52 per cent.
On the NSE, shares plunged 6.35 per cent to close at Rs 1,243.55.
In terms of volume, 13.33 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over 82 lakh shares were traded at the NSE during the day.

The stock has been on back foot since last four days, falling over 28 per cent and wiping out Rs 5,454 crore to Rs 13,684.92 crore from its market valuation.
Wockhardt's L1 Chikalthana facility was under import alert for its drug Metoprolol XR, used for treating blood pressure, while the Waluj facility that makes injectables and solid dosages was also put under import restrictions by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in 2013.

In a filing to the BSE today, the company said that during an inspection of the facilities at L1 Chikalthana and Waluj in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, the USFDA made some observations pertaining to batches of some products manufactured prior to the import alerts.

"As a measure of preparedness and as an abundant precaution, the company has now decided to recall, as a part of remedial measure, all the remaining batches (of drugs) in the US market that were manufactured prior to the USFDA import alerts even though there is no evidence of risk to patient safety from the products currently available in the US market," Wockhardt said.
Several batches of other products, manufactured prior to the import alerts, may still be in the US market, it added.