Indian drug manufacturer Ranbaxy is contesting us multinational Pfizer in 17 countries. It is filing for the right to manufacture generic versions of the world's bestselling drug Lipitor and a combination drug Caduet, in the us. But it hasn't really struck a blow for the generic pharma industry: Ranbaxy remains a supporter of product patents and incremental innovations at home.

At the crux of the dispute is Pfizer's designs on a patent extension by combining Lipitor with another drug: Norvasc. Ranbaxy senses a weakness in Pfizer's case and is questioning the us multinational's rights in several countries. It has also filed applications to market, and make generic versions of Caduet. Pfizer is contesting these applications (See box: Items of contest).Shamnad Basheer of George Washington University Law School, however, believes that the Caduet patent will be invalidated since it does not really represent any "inventiveness'. "The litigation can have a bearing on the Novartis dispute in India on the generic blood cancer drug, Gleevec," he said. (see