Dr. Reddy's announced Wednesday that it settled a lawsuit brought by Pfizer over a generic version of Lipitor (atorvastatin). The Indian drugmaker did not disclose the terms of the agreement and noted that it is still subject to review by US regulators.

Pfizer filed a lawsuit against Dr. Reddy’s claiming that the company’s application to market a generic version of the statin infringed one of Pfizer’s patents. International patents for Lipitor have already started to expire and US patents on the drug are scheduled to begin to expire on November 30.

Commenting on the news, Dr. Reddy’s spokesman Kedar Upadhye said "we have closed our litigation with Pfizer, but the date of entry into the market is not yet confirmed."

Pfizer previously reached a deal with Ranbaxy that allows the company to begin selling a generic version of Lipitor in the US starting November 30. Pfizer entered into a similar agreement with Mylan, the terms of which were not disclosed.

The Wall Street Journal in August cited a source familiar with the matter that suggested that Pfizer was considering introducing an over-the-counter version of the statin.


(Ref: France 24, The Economic Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Yahoo!Finance)