Pfizer and Ranbaxy End Lipitor Dispute

Pfizer and India's Ranbaxy Laboratories have settled patent litigation over Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug that represented about a quarter of Pfizer's $49 billion in sales last year. Under the settlement, Ranbaxy will be able to sell a generic version of Lipitor starting on Nov. 30, 2011. The basic U.S. patent on Lipitor's active ingredient, atorvastatin, expires in March 2010. Ranbaxy maintained in court that this patent is invalid, while Pfizer argued that process and crystalline form patents protect Lipitor until 2016 or 2017. Pfizer says the settlement doesn't involve any payments that might concern the Federal Trade Commission.