By Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) – Pfizer has agreed to pay $93 million to settle antitrust claims by wholesale drug distributors that accused it of conspiring with India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories to delay sales of cheap, generic versions of the cholesterol drug Lipitor.

Attorneys for Lipitor purchasers including Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc and Puerto Rico’s Drogueria Betances LLC disclosed the agreement in a filing on Wednesday in U.S. court in Trenton, Latest Jersey.

The distributors’ case will proceed against Ranbaxy, the attorneys filing said.

The proposed settlement, which requires a judge’s approval, comes after greater than a decade of litigation. Pfizer didn’t admit liability.

Pfizer in an announcement called the allegations “factually and legally without merit.” It said the settlement was “fair, reasonable and probably the greatest method to resolve this litigation.”

A representative for Sun Pharma, which acquired Ranbaxy in 2014, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Pfizer introduced Lipitor in 1997, and the drug drove greater than $130 billion in sales during its first 14 years within the marketplace.

The pharma distributors claimed Pfizer fraudulently sought to extend its patent rights over Lipitor. They accused the company of paying Ranbaxy to delay introducing a generic version of Lipitor and interesting in sham litigation with Ranbaxy over the drug.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlement provides “immediate economic relief” to class members and avoids the danger of continued litigation, potential appeals and no recovery. They said they could seek as much as about $31 million in legal fees from the settlement fund.

The case is In re: Lipitor Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Latest Jersey, No. 3:12-cv-02389-PGS-JBD.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Christopher Cushing)