FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin

Five retailers have sued Pfizer and Ranbaxy, alleging the drugmakers conspired to delay market entry of generic Lipitor in the U.S. Their ploy: “sham” compacts that forced the retailers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for atorvastatin than they otherwise would have, according to the lawsuit. In their antitrust suit filed July 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Walgreen, Kroger, Safeway, SuperValu and HEB Grocery accuse the pharma giants of entering into an “unlawful contract, combination and conspiracy” that successfully subdued generic competition for 20 months after the blockbuster cholesterol drug’s original patent had expired.
Washington Drug Letter