Has Malvinder Singh truly freed Ranbaxy from risk by opting for an out-of-court settlement with Pfizer over Lipitor as he has claimed? The markets and analysts certainly thought otherwise. Investors dumped the Ranbaxy stock last week after the company announced that it had closed the feud with Pfizer over cholesterol pill Lipitor. Ranbaxy agreed not to litigate any further against Pfizer's patents on the drug. Pfizer, in return, allowed it to launch generic Lipitor in the US by the end of 2011. The deal took everybody by surprise not least because Ranbaxy was known to have a strong case. So the settlement will only delay the launch of Ranbaxy's generic Lipitor by well over a year. Ranbaxy, in fact, has done more such out-of-court settlements of patent litigation in the last one year before its acquisition by Daiichi-Sankyo. This too is a cause for concern. Indian generic companies, with their low production costs have become ripe acquisition targets for multinational drug makers. Two large Indian companies, Matrix and Ranbaxy, have already been targeted. It now appears that the overseas owners would like to close most patent disputes. While such settlements may suit multinational owners, the signals they send out are disturbing. It is common knowledge that large pharmaceutical companies protect their bestseller products by "evergreening" patents