Pfizer wins lawsuit against Ranbaxy

Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, won a US court ruling that prevents Ranbaxy Laboratories from selling a generic version of the blood pressure medicine Caduet until 2010.

District Judge Joseph J Farnan ruled that Ranbaxy already lost its bid to invalidate one Pfizer patent, so it can't renew the argument. The patent covers the cholesterol treatment Lipitor, the world's best-selling medicine. Caduet combines Lipitor with Pfizer's Norvasc, which has lost patent protection.

Ranbaxy's challenge to the patent "was raised and litigated to a final judgment on the merits in the Lipitor litigation between these same parties," said Farnan in an opinion issued yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware.

New York-based Pfizer also is seeking to block generic Caduet until a second patent, for the combination of Lipitor and Norvasc, expires in 2018.

The judge has yet to rule on this request.

Pfizer reported $265 million in Caduet sales in the first half of 2007.

Lipitor had $6.1 billion in sales in the same period.

Ranbaxy, Gurgaon-based, India, is the country's second-biggest drugmaker behind Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

The case is Pfizer versus Ranbaxy Laboratories, 07cv138, US District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).