18 Ranbaxy drugs get USFDA nod

The US Food and Drug Administration approved 18 generic drugs made by Ranbaxy Laboratories even as the US investigated whether the company fabricated data to get its medicines cleared.

The FDA has been aware of the allegations for at least 18 months, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a document on its Web site.

Ranbaxy, India's largest drugmaker, has brought to market nine of the 18 drugs, among them copies of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's cholesterol drug Pravachol and Johnson & Johnson's nonprescription allergy pill Zyrtec, according to the company.