Ranbaxy Settles Actos Patent Dispute With Takeda (Update1)

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. settled a patent dispute with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. allowing the Indian drugmaker to sell a generic version of Actos, the world’s biggest selling diabetes medicine, in the U.S.

The agreement will allow Ranbaxy, India’s largest drugmaker, to sell its version of Actos starting Aug. 17, 2012, the company said in a statement today.

Actos had sales of about $3.4 billion in 2009, Gurgaon, India-based Ranbaxy said in the statement, citing market researcher IMS Health. Takeda, Asia’s largest drugmaker, sued Ranbaxy, Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mylan Laboratories Inc. in 2003 to block low-cost versions of Actos.

Corona, California-based Watson on March 10 said it reached a legal settlement with Takeda allowing Watson to sell a generic version of Actos from August 2012.

Ranbaxy fell 0.7 percent to 460.3 rupees as of 1:29 p.m. in Mumbai trading. The benchmark Sensitive Index gained 0.1 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saikat Chatterjee in New Delhi at schatterjee4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Longid at flongid@bloomberg.net