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Ranbaxy Granted Permission to Appeal U.K. High Court Judgement on Patent Relating to Atorvastatin

Posted on: Thursday, 3 November 2005, 09:01 CST

LONDON, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) announces that today the U.K. High Court granted Ranbaxy permission to appeal the ruling of October 12, 2005, that its atorvastatin product would infringe Warner Lambert/Pfizer's European patent 247 633 in the U.K*. Atorvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering drug, which is marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor.

In his October 12th judgment, Mr. Justice Pumfrey had ruled that Warner Lambert/Pfizer's European patent 409 281 was invalid in the U.K. but that Ranbaxy's proposed product would infringe Warner Lambert/Pfizer's patent 247 633.

In his decision today, Mr. Justice Pumfrey granted permission to both Ranbaxy and Pfizer to appeal the respective rulings in the U.K. Court of Appeal. The outcome of both appeals is expected by the end of 2006.

Malvinder Singh, President & Executive Director of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., said, "Having already been successful in invalidating one of the two key Pfizer patents relating to atorvastatin in the U.K., Ranbaxy is encouraged to have been granted the opportunity to make its case on the infringement decision on the other patent before the U.K. Court of Appeal. We remain committed to our objective of bringing an affordable generic formulation of atorvastatin to the National Health Service in the UK."

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, headquartered in India, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies. Ranbaxy's continued focus on R&D has resulted in several approvals in developed markets and significant progress in New Drug Discovery Research. The Company's foray into Novel Drug Delivery Systems has led to proprietary "platform technologies", resulting in a number of products under development. The Company is serving its customers in over 100 countries and has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 46 countries and manufacturing operations in 7 countries.

* Technically the case was brought against Warner Lambert, the original

holder of the patents; Warner Lambert was acquired by Pfizer in 2000.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited

CONTACT: Charles M. Caprariello, Vice President, CorporateCommunications, Ranbaxy Inc., +1-609-720-5615; Edwige Buteau, RF BinderPartners Inc., +1-212-994-7517, or Caroline Mozingo of RF Binder PartnersInc., +1-212-994-7560

Web site: http://www.ranbaxy.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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