US court favours Ranbaxy in Lipitor case

Country's biggest drug maker, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd on Wednesday said a US Appeals Court has ruled in its favour in the patent infringement case with Pfizer for cholesterol-lowering drug Atorvastatin (Lipitor).

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favour of Ranbaxy's patent 995, while the other patent 893 went in Pfizer's favour, RanBaxy said in a statement today.

The court's ruling reverses an earlier order by a district court, which favoured Pfizer for both the patents.

Commenting on the decision, Jay R Deshmukh, senior vice president, Ranbaxy's Global Intellectual Property, said, "We are pleased by the Court's decision on the 995 patent and are evaluating our options with respect to the 893 patent.

Ranbaxy said it could now bring the launch date forward to March 2010 from June 2011 with 180-day exclusivity in the US market, adding that this was subject to the appellate process and market authorisation by the USFDA.