Five big U.S. retailers filed an antitrust lawsuit against Pfizer Inc and India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd on Thursday, accusing them of conspiring to delay sales of generic versions of Lipitor, the best-selling drug in history. Walgreen Co, Kroger Co, Safeway Inc, SuperValu Inc and HEB Grocery Co accused the defendants of running an “overarching anticompetitive scheme” to keep generic versions of the cholesterol drug off the market until November 30, 2011, 20 months after the original patent expired.
