Pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) won an important suit to preserve its patent benefits for Lipitor, a popular and lucrative cholesterol-lowering drug. According to Peter Loftus (www.wsj.com - subscription required), Pfizer earned almost $13 billion from Lipitor sales in 2006. Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories had sued to sell a cheaper generic version of Lipitor. The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Pfizer.
Pfizer agreed to pay a $35 million fine in order to settle a suit brought by the US Justice Department involving a drug sold by Pharmacia, now a Pfizer subsidiary. Prior to its acquisition by Pfizer in 2003, Pharmacia marketed a human growth hormone drug called Genetropin. There is nothing wrong with the drug. The fine is because Pharmacia improperly influenced a vendor for government health-care programs to purchase not only Genotropin but other Pharmacia products as well. Pfizer will still market Genotropin, but the guilty unit of Pharmacia will pay $20 million in fines and will not be able to participate in government health-care programs. Another Pharmacia unit will pay $15 million in fines for improperly promoting Genotropin as an anti-aging medication, an unapproved usage.
News of Pfizer's legal dealings did not seem to bother investors. Pfizer closed at $25.67 on April 3, up 33 cents for the day.
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