Pfizer Survives Key Patent Test

Lipitor-like angst has afflicted other Big Pharma companies. Analysts following Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis(SNY Quote) routinely outline worst-case scenarios if their anticoagulant drug Plavix loses a patent challenge in the U.S.

And Wall Street fretted for many months over a patent challenge to Eli Lilly's(LLY Quote) schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, until a federal judge sided with Lilly in mid-April. The challengers are appealing.