Saturday, December 17 2005 15:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: A US court has ruled against Ranbaxy in its case for non-infringement and invalidation of two patents of its competitor Pfizer on cholesterol lowering drug atorvastatin, prompting the Indian pharma major to announce that it would appeal against the decision.

Marketed by Pfizer under brand name Lipitor, the medicine is the largest selling drug in the world.

Judge Joseph J Farnan of the US District Court of Deleware held yesterday that Ranbaxy Laboratories' atorvastatin infringes New York-based Pfizer's US Patent No. 4,681,893, and at the same time upheld the validity of another, Pfizer US Patent No. 5,273,995, which Ranbaxy had claimed was invalid.

The ruling followed a hearing, which took place earlier this month. Ranbaxy plans to begin the appeals process immediately.

"We remain undeterred in our resolve on this issue, and we will press our case in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. We are committed to bringing lower cost, reliable medicines to health care systems worldwide," President and Executive Director of Ranbaxy Malvinder M Singh said commenting on the decision.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, headquartered in India, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines.

Ranbaxy serves customers in over 100 countries and has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 46 countries and manufacturing operations in seven countries.