Wockhardt shares drop 20 percent after FDA import alert

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares of drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd fell 20 percent on Thursday to their lowest level in more than seven months, after the U.S. drug regulator published an "import alert" on one of its manufacturing facilities.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration published the alert dated May 22 on Wockhardt's Aurangabad facility in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, according to the regulator's web site.

An "import alert" results in detention without physical examination of drugs from firms that have not met so-called good manufacturing practices, according to the FDA site. It did not give the reason for the alert on Wockhardt.

 

Wockhardt officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The company's shares fell 20 percent, their daily limit, to 1,313.80 rupees in a Mumbai market that was down nearly 2 percent.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)