Pfizer has agreed to pay $93 million to settle antitrust claims by wholesale drug distributors that accused it of conspiring with Ranbaxy Laboratories to delay gross sales of cheaper, generic variations of the ldl cholesterol drug Lipitor.
Attorneys for Lipitor purchasers together with Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc and Puerto Rico’s Drogueria Betances LLC disclosed the settlement in a submitting on Wednesday in U.S. court docket in Trenton, New Jersey.
The distributors’ case will proceed towards Ranbaxy, the attorneys submitting stated.
The proposed settlement, which requires a decide’s approval, comes after greater than a decade of litigation. Pfizer didn’t admit legal responsibility.
Pfizer in a press release known as the allegations “factually and legally without merit.” It stated the settlement was “fair, reasonable and the best way to resolve this litigation.”
A consultant for Sun Pharma, which acquired Ranbaxy in 2014, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Pfizer launched Lipitor in 1997, and the drug drove greater than $130 billion in gross sales throughout its first 14 years in the marketplace.
The pharma distributors claimed Pfizer fraudulently sought to prolong its patent rights over Lipitor. They accused the corporate of paying Ranbaxy to delay introducing a generic model of Lipitor and interesting in sham litigation with Ranbaxy over the drug.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs stated the settlement supplies “immediate economic relief” to class members and avoids the danger of continued litigation, potential appeals and no restoration. They stated they are going to search up to about $31 million in authorized charges from the settlement fund.
