A federal judge in New Jersey refused to send RP Healthcare’s antitrust case against Pfizer to California, or to stay discovery in the matter. Chimes Pharmacy and RP Healthcare sued pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and generic drugmaker Ranbaxy for illegally keeping a generic version of the blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor off the U.S. market in November 2011. Related cases were filed around the country in December 2011, at which point the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the matters. RP Healthcare, represented by Joseph Alioto, withdrew the federal complaint and reinstituted the matter in California state court in January 2012. Pfizer removed that action to federal court in March, claiming that the case violated several federal price-competition laws.
