Ranbaxy CEO, chair voted out

Daiichi Sankyo and Ranbaxy Laboratories announced that Malvinder Mohan Singh has stepped down from the positions of chairman, CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy with immediate effect.

Atul Sobti, currently Ranbaxy's chief operating officer (COO), has been appointed as CEO and managing director. Tsutomu Une, MD, non-executive director of Ranbaxy, has been elected as chairman of the board. The decision was made at the board meeting of the Gurgoan, India-based Ranbaxy on May 24.

Earlier this year, the FDA accused Ranbaxy of submitting falsified stability data in abbreviated new drug applications, which include information generated from the company's plant in Paonta Sahib, India. At the time, the agency said that new and pending applications referencing information from the facility would not be reviewed until the suspect data are validated.

Takashi Shoda, director of Ranbaxy and the CEO of the Tokyo-based Daiichi, which owns 63.92 percent of Ranbaxy's outstanding shares, said: "We very much appreciate the efforts of the Singh family, which grew Ranbaxy from a small, local Indian company to the large multi-national company it has become today."

"It was a difficult decision to separate from Ranbaxy," Singh said, "but it was the right time for me to do so."

Sobti has held the role of COO at Ranbaxy since January 2007 and has been a senior executive at the company from October 2005. Une is currently a non-executive director of Ranbaxy, a post he has held since December 2008, and is senior executive officer and member of the board of Daiichi.

Daiichi said that it isn't planning to make any other changes to the management team. The company also noted that it expects the new board to speed up decision-making and execution.

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