Ranbaxy said on Tuesday that UK's English Crown court has quashed the country's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecution of the firm's subsidiary. This has come as a welcome breather for the company, which is facing investigations in US for selling sub-standard drugs. Ranbaxy said that the court also declined an application by the SFO for permission to appeal to the English court of appeal, although the SFO retains a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal directly. "We welcome the decision of the English Crown Court," said Ranbaxy. The company said that we are a responsible company committed to providing high quality generic medicines at affordable prices to its customers and patients throughout the world. According to UK media, SFO was investigating five drugs companies for defrauding the National Health Service by fixing prices of some common drugs, penicillin-based antibiotics, and the blood-thinning drug warfarin. The court ruled on the basis of a recent ruling of the House of Lords that price fixing did not amount to conspiracy to defraud at the time the investigation was started. SFO's lawyers had accused the companies and individuals of "costing the taxpayer millions of pounds", but the judge ruled that the SFO brought a prosecution on the basis of a defective and misconceived assumption.