US-based drugstore chain Rite Aid Corporation has sued Ranbaxy Laboratories to recover the litigation cost spent in lawsuits involving the Indian firm’s generic drug metoclopramide used to treat vomiting and nausea but found to have adverse side effects.

Metoclopramide is the generic copy of Wyeth’s ‘Reglan’, which has been sued by patients in the US now known as ‘Reglan Litigation’ after being found to have side effects, including serious irreversible body movement disorder.

According to complaint filed by the firm in the US Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, Rite Aid Corporation (RCA) said: “Rite Aid seeks compensatory damages with a present monetary value, exclusive of costs and interests, in excess of $75,000.”

Ranbaxy had breached their agreement by refusing to defend it in the ‘Reglan Litigation’, it said.

RCA claimed that it has a Defence and Indemnity Agreement with the Indian firm, which requires “Ranbaxy to defend indemnify and hold Rite Aid, its shareholders, officers, agents and subsidiaries from any and all losses’’.

“Ranbaxy’s refusal to defend and indemnify Rite Aid in the Reglan Litigation breached (the) agreement, causing Rite Aid to suffer, at this time, damages in attorney’s fees, costs and expenses in excess of $75,000,” it said.

When contacted a Ranbaxy spokesperson said: “As a company policy, we do not comment on ongoing litigation. This complaint is being evaluated and based on the merits, the same shall be addressed accordingly and appropriately as deemed fit.”

Meanwhile, Ranbaxy Laboratories shares today closed at Rs 543.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 0.03 per cent from its previous close.

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