Kyle Bass tastes second success at the PTAB
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass and his Coalition for Affordable Drugs have tasted success at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for the second time in a month after it agreed to institute an inter partes review (IPR) of a patent covering a drug owned by NPS Pharmaceuticals.
On Friday, October 23, the PTAB approved the coalition’s request for an IPR against US patent 7,056,886.
The coalition challenged the patent, which covers NPS’s drug Gattex (Teduglutide) on the grounds that it was obvious. Gattex is used to treat short bowl syndrome.
During the proceedings NPS claimed that Bass and the coalition were abusing the IPR process and that the petition was part of a “short activist” financial plan intended to “defraud the entire market and, consequently, affect the stock price” of the patent owner.
Furthermore, NPS claimed the coalition would not have been able to file a similar case at a US district court because it would have lacked standing.
But the three-judge panel was not convinced and said that the PTAB “serves a strong public interest in facilitating the removal of poor quality patents from the public arena”.
The latest success follows the coalition’s victory earlier this month in its challenge against biopharmaceutical company Shire’s patent covering its Lialda (mesalamine) drug, used to treat patients suffering from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
