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Drugs and patents involved

The Ranbaxy-Pfizer dispute involves three drugs:Lipitor, Caduet and Norvasc. The last named is a blood pressure drug. Pfizer's patent over it was annulled recently ending a lucrative monopoly: Norvasc, Pfizer's second biggest selling drug, earned the company about US$5 billion in sales in 2006. But the company combined one of its key ingredients with a constituent of the second drug in the picture: Lipitor

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