| jsanders00@gmail.com 2006-07-06, 4:21 pm |
| Interesting bit in BusinessWeek about our friends at Ranbaxy, a source
of
unlicensed V that many have used:
Indian generic maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. is fighting Pfizer in a
Delaware court for the right to launch a generic version of Lipitor, a
cholesterol-lowering drug with $10 billion in annual sales. Two Lipitor
patents are at issue, and Ranbaxy's complex arguments include
assertions that the Indian company doesn't infringe the first patent
and that the second is invalid. McKinnell says it will be tough for
Ranbaxy to win on both patent challenges and that he's confident Pfizer
will prevail. But he acknowledges that a loss would be "catastrophic."
Smith Barney analyst George Grofik warns, moreover, that Wall Street is
underestimating the strength of Ranbaxy's case and that it is far from
certain Pfizer will win. If Ranbaxy comes out on top, a generic Lipitor
could hit the market in a couple of years, well ahead of the 2011 time
frame that the market is anticipating.
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