Marketing Rights to Lipitor to Go to Trial

Warner-Lambert Co. and Pfizer Inc. will go to trial April 10 in a dispute over marketing rights to the blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor, a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled. Warner-Lambert had sought a trial date before a May 15 vote on its friendly $64-billion merger with American Home Products Corp., preferably in March. Warner-Lambert, fighting an unwelcome $76-billion takeover bid from Pfizer, sued last month to end their partnership to market the top-selling U.S. cholesterol drug. Pfizer had argued that there was no need to accelerate a trial.