A lawsuit settlement between AstraZeneca and India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories will ensure that a cheap, copycat version of the best-selling heartburn drug Nexium won’t hit the market until 2014.

Nexium is the second-biggest prescription medicine globally, with sales of $5.2 billion in 2007. But its future has been under a cloud with the recent expiration of a stay blocking

regulatory approval of a generic version. Under the deal, Ranbaxy can start selling a generic version of Nexium in May 2014. MORE TO READ