Talk about a delayed reaction. Two months ago, news broke that federal prosecutors alleged Ranbaxy Labs falsified records resulting in the production and sale of meds that didn’t meet FDA standards. The allegations under investigation include fabricating bioequivalence and stability data to support AIDS drugs to be paid for by the Pepfar and distributed to foreign countries (back story).

Then last week, the FDA got around to authorizing authorities to halt imports of 30 Ranbaxy meds (look here), but only after the House Energy & Commerce committee began probing the extent to which the agency was monitoring the problems with Ranbaxy plants in India (more back story).

Among the drugs allegedly imperiled by Ranbaxy’s shenanigans are AIDS meds that are paid for by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which buys meds for African countries and other developing countries, doled out nearly $9 million to Ranbaxy for its generics. However, PEPFAR officials have seemed oblivious to the scandal. “It’s pretty clear that the system is working well, and it protects African families just like American families are protected,” Ambassador Mark Dybul, the US global AIDS coordinator, reportedly said days after the news broke (look at this).

Now, PEPFAR officials have suspended funding for three Ranbaxy generics until the FDA verifies that manufacturing issues in one of the plants in India are rectified, Bloomberg News reports. Of course, they took action only after the House Energy & Commerce Committee widened its Ranbaxy probe to write a letter last week to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rise about the extent to which PEPFAR officials were aware of the problems and any actions taken.

“Funds cannot be used to support new orders” for the three Ranbaxy drugs - zidovudine, lamivudine and nevirapine - manufactured at one of the plants in India, according to an e-mail the news service received from the AIDS program’s spokeswoman. She provided the information on the condition that her name not be used, citing policies of the State Department, which runs the initiative.

Although the FDA import ban applies only to the US market, the government decided to suspend funding for the AIDS drugs supplied overseas. It is a “principle” of the president’s AIDS initiative to “meet standards equal to those established for patients in the United States,” the PEPFAR spokeswoman tells Bloomberg.

Chuck Caprariello, a Ranbaxy spokesman, tells Bloomberg he doesn’t have firsthand knowledge of the government’s decision and couldn’t comment. All he would say is that Ranbaxy is working with the U.S. government “to resolve all of the issues and concerns that have been raised.”

There is no evidence that Ranbaxy’s medicines are harmful, though the violations could lead to defective products, according to the FDA, although some experts say a product recall should be undertaken (see our reader poll, too).

The FDA import ban, by the way, is not related to the ongoing US criminal investigation examining whether the company fabricated data to get its medicines cleared for sale.