Pfizer and Ranbaxy Settle Lipitor Patent Litigation Worldwide - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome today's speaker, Ms. Suzanne Harnett, Senior Director of Investor Relations.

SUZANNE HARNETT, SENIOR DIRECTOR, INVESTOR RELATIONS, PFIZER: Thank you and good morning. Welcome to our call to discuss an important agreement that we have entered into with Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and certain of its affiliates to settle substantially all of our patent litigation worldwide involving Lipitor and Caduet.

Before we begin, let me remind you that some of the statements made during this call may contain forward-looking statements as the term is defined in the private securities litigation reform act of 1985. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risk and uncertainty that may cause results to differ materially.

No forward-looking statements can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements on this call should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect our business, particularly those mentioned in Pfizer's 2007 annual report on Form 10-K and in our reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. These reports are available on our website, www.Pfizer.com, in the investors' SEC filing section.

With me here today are David Reid, Senior Vice President and Acting General Counsel, Peter Richardson, Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and a number of our other colleagues in our legal division. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of David, Peter, and our entire Intellectual Property, Commercial, and Antitrust teams who have been involved in defending our Lipitor patent challenges for more than five years.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to David, who will provide a few brief comments, and then we will open up the call for your questions regarding the legal aspects of this agreement. We request that you limit your questions to only one so we have adequate time to address all questions from the group.

DAVID REID, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND ACTING GENERAL COUNSEL, PFIZER: Thank you, Suzanne. We are pleased to announce today that we have entered into an agreement with Ranbaxy to settle substantially all patent litigation worldwide involving Lipitor and Caduet. Notably this settlement provides substantial certainty regarding the potential date for entry of a generic version of Lipitor in United States, the largest market for this product with 2007 sales of over $7 billion.

As discussed in our release issued this morning, under the terms of the agreement, Ranbaxy will be granted a license to sell generic versions of Lipitor and Caduet in the United States effective November 30, 2011. Further Ranbaxy will have a license to sell atorvastatin, the active ingredient in Lipitor, on varying dates in an additional seven countries at or around the basic and enantiomer patent expiration date in Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Australia. Pfizer and Ranbaxy have also resolved their disputes regarding Lipitor in Malaysia, Brunei, Peru, and Vietnam.

Five European countries are not covered by this agreement. They are Finland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Romania, and …