Shire Division Asks Court to Dismiss FTC Suit over Citizen Petitions

Shire ViroPharma has asked a Delaware federal court to dismiss an FTC complaint accusing the drug company of abusing the citizen petition process.

The agency sued the Shire division, claiming it filed 46 meritless petitions to keep generic competition for its drug Vancocin D out of the market.

In its motion to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Shire argued the FTC’s complaint was an “exaggerated counting exercise,” based on adding the number of individual filings in the citizen petition docket to the number of parallel filings ViroPharma submitted in response to the FDA inviting public comment.

In addition, the motion claims, the FTC lawsuit fails to prove the petitions were “objectively baseless,” the requirement for a petition to waive its antitrust immunity.