A judge gave initial approval Tuesday to settlements of shareholder litigation arising out of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMY) efforts in 2006 to end its long-running patent dispute with Canadian drug maker Apotex Inc. over the popular blood thinner Plavix.

In an order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in Manhattan granted preliminary approval to an agreement in principle in which Bristol-Myers and its former chief executive would pay $125 million to settle a consolidated shareholder action over disclosures regarding its efforts to settle the Plavix litigation in 2006. The pact was reached in May.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb is pleased to have reached this settlement with plaintiffs and the company continues to focus on delivering innovative medicines to help patients with serious disease," said Laura Hortas, a Bristol-Myers spokeswoman.

The judge also initially signed off on an agreement in principle to settle separate derivative litigation against Bristol's directors over the board's actions concerning the company's efforts to settle the Plavix patent fight. The derivative settlement was reached in June.

Judge Crotty will hold a fairness hearing Dec. 8 on the settlements, which were disclosed in a regulatory filing last month.

In June 2007, Bristol-Myers pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to the Federal Trade Commission regarding a proposed settlement of the Plavix case and agreed to pay a $1 million fine.

The patent litigation ultimately went to trial and a federal judge in June 2007 rejected Apotex's bid to invalidate a key U.S. patent for the blood thinner, which runs through November 2011.

Apotex briefly had introduced a generic version of the drug in August 2006 before a judge ordered a halt.

In June, Andrew Bodnar, a former Bristol-Myers executive, was sentenced to probation and ordered to write a book about his experience after he pleaded guilty to making a false statement about the company's efforts to resolve the Plavix litigation.

-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com