Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, which reported a 91 per cent drop in second-quarter profit, expects to double its sales by 2011, following the settlement of a dispute with Pfizer Inc over its patented drug Liptor.

Ranbaxy's profits took a knock after the rupee registered its biggest quarterly decline in a decade against the dollar. Ranbaxy booked a Rs193 crore writedown. Excluding one-time items and foreign exchanges losses, profit was little changed at Rs161 crore.

Liptor, the world's most-prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine, is being manufactured by Ranbaxy under the name Atorvastatin. Liptor had global sales of $12.7 billion in 2007.

The settlement with Pfizer will allow Ranbaxy to sell generic versions of the drug and the fixed dose combination of Atorvastatin-Amlodipine besylate (Caduet) worldwide.

Gurgaon-based Ranbaxy, the largest drugmaker in India, which is being taken over by Daiichi Sankyo Co of Japan, expects to become a $5-billion company in terms of sales and position itself among the top five global generic companies by 2012. 

Ranbaxy's net income fell to Rs22.9 crore ($5.4 million) in the April-June quarter against Rs264 crore a year earlier, the company said.

Ranbaxy expects additional sales from Lipitor to help it nearly double sales once the drug is sold worldwide.

The agreement with Pfizer allows Ranbaxy to sell the drug in the Canadian market from 30 November this year and in the US market from 30 November 2011.

Besides, the company will be able to sell this drug in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Australia, Malaysia, Brunei, Peru and Vietnam.