The US District Court of Delaware ruled against Ranbaxy Laboratories in its case for non-infringement and invalidation of two Pfizer patents on atorvastatin. Ranbaxy plans to begin the appeals process immediately.

Judge Joseph J. Farnan held that Ranbaxy's atorvastatin infringes Pfizer's US Patent No. 4,681,893, and at the same time upheld the validity of another, Pfizer U.S. Patent No. 5,273,995 which Ranbaxy had claimed was invalid. The ruling followed a hearing in the US District Court of Delaware, which took place in December 2004.

Commenting on the decision, Malvinder M. Singh, President and Executive Director of Ranbaxy, said, "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 healthcare systems, worldwide."

Atorvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering drug, marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor, and is the largest-selling drug in the world.