Pfizer’s Celebrex Faces Legal Challenge

Pfizer Inc. may have to defend a patent for its Celebrex painkiller after a challenge by a generic-medicine maker.

An unidentified company is challenging a patent on versions of Celebrex through a Food and Drug Administration application, the agency said.

Celebrex, the world’s top-selling arthritis drug, had sales of $701 million in the third quarter.

Shares of New York-based Pfizer rose 95 cents to $36.50 on the NYSE.