Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharma entity, won the Lipitor patent case in Austria. A five-judge panel of the Supreme Patent and Trademark Board of Austria (OPM) has unanimously affirmed an earlier ruling of the Austrian Patent Office, invalidating claims of Pfizer's Austrian Patent covering Atorvastatin calcium (Lipitor). Lipitor is the largest selling prescription drug with sales of US$ 12.19 billion during 2005.

"We are pleased with the decision rendered by the Supreme Patent and Trademark Board of Austria," said Malvinder M Singh, chief executive officer and managing director of Ranbaxy. "Our success further validates our strategy to successfully commercialize Atorvastatin in Austria, and potentially other healthcare markets in the future. It is anticipated that this will have a positive impact on healthcare costs, by providing a high quality, generic alternative at affordable prices."

Ranbaxy and Pfizer going through litigation in a number of countries such as the UK, US, Austria, Norway, Finland etc. The company lost in US and Finland market but win few places like UK and Norway.