In Re Lipitor

| November 6, 2016

(3^rd Cir., filed March 28, 2016): Arguing that antitrust cases require pleadings to include sufficient facts to establish a plausible foundation for the allegations. Requiring the complaint include sufficient plausible facts will help avoid highly speculative antitrust lawsuits and unnecessary litigation costs.

Court ruled against ATRA's position On August, 21, 2017, the Third Circuit found that the district court had adopted a heightened pleading standard that exceeded Iqbal/Twombly. “Twombly and Iqbal require only plausibility, a standard not akin to a probability requirement. While Twombly and Iqbal require that factual allegations be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, those cases make it clear that a claimant does not have to set out in detail the facts upon which he bases his claim.” (internal citations, alterations, and quotations omitted) “The alleged reverse payment here was ‘large’ enough to permit a plausible inference that Pfizer possessed the power to bring about an unjustified anticompetitive harm through its patents and had serious doubts about the ability of those patents to lawfully prevent competition.”