Pfizer and Ranbaxy Laboratories have been sued in an anti-trust case filed in federal

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court in New York alleging the drugmakers engaged in an anti-competitive scheme to delay a generic version of Lipitor into the market.

The AFL-AGC Building Trades Welfare plan, a health and welfare benefit plan based in Mobile, Alabama, claims that two drugmakers engaged in a monopolisation scheme after Pfizer’s original patent for the cholesterol-lowering drug expired on March 24, 2010.

In the proposed class-action, or group lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege the drug companies agreed to delay the entry of generic Lipitor for 20 months. As a result of an unlawful agreement with generic-maker Ranbaxy, Pfizer forced purchasers to pay more for Lipitor than they would have paid for the generic version of the drug.

Defendants scheme was successful — generic Lipitor did not become available for sale until November 2011, the plaintiffs said. As a result of defendants illegal acts, plaintiffs and the indirect purchaser class were forced to pay billions of dollars more for Lipitor than they would have absent defendants anti-competitive scheme.

Both drugmakers were sued in a complaint making similar allegations filed in federal court in San Francisco by 11 California pharmacies in November. In that case, the plaintiffs alleged that they held back on a generic version of the cholesterol-lowering drug in the US and then fixed its price.

Lipitor sells for more than $4 a day compared with prices as low as 10 cents day for the generic, the drug stores said in their complaint. Lipitor’s purchasers in the US are paying inflated costs as

a result, the pharmacies said.

Sales of Lipitor generated $10.7 billion in revenue for New York-based Pfizer in 2010. A legal settlement with Pfizer gave New Delhi-based Ranbaxy six months exclusivity to market generic Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug. The lawsuit seeks disgorgement of profits from the allegedly illegal arrangement and triple damages.

The Federal Trade Commission reviewed the terms of the 2008 settlement, Chris Loder, a Pfizer spokesman said. Pfizer believes the suit has no merit. We are confident that the Lipitor patent settlement with Ranbaxy is appropriate, he said.

Chuck Caprariello, a spokesman for Ranbaxy, didn’t immediately return a voice-mail message left at his office seeking comment on the complaint.