US judge upholds Ranbaxy-Pfizer Lipitor marketing deal

In a piece of good news for the US FDA-challenged Ranbaxy laboratories Ltd, a US court has dismissed charges against Pfizer Inc and India's Ranbaxy over an anti-trust suit accusing them of conspiring to delay sales of generic versions of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the best-selling drug in history.

The lawsuit was filed in 2012 by retailers and distributors that bought Lipitor directly from Pfizer.

But US district judge Peter Sheridan in Trenton, New Jersey, ruled that the plaintiffs, retailers and distribution companies that bought Lipitor directly from Pfizer failed to plead their case with enough detail.

The lawsuit stems from a 2008 settlement of a patent lawsuit filed by Pfizer against Ranbaxy over Ranbaxy's plan to make generic Lipitor. Under the deal, Pfizer agreed to drop a claim for damages against Ranbaxy, and Ranbaxy agreed to stay out of the Lipitor market until November 2011.

Retailers and distribution companies claim that the settlement amounted to Pfizer paying Ranbaxy to stay out of the Lipitor market, violating antitrust laws. But Sheridan ruled Friday that their case failed because they did not offer any allegation of the settlement's dollar value.

Sheridan had dismissed another version of the lawsuit last September.