LSIPR 50 2017: Kyle Bass
Name: Kyle Bass
Organisation: Hayman Capital Management
Position: Chief investment officer
Dubbed “the man who shorted the world” by The Wall Street Journal, Kyle Bass has had success in investments across different sectors.
"He founded the Coalition for Affordable Drugs, whose main function is to challenge pharmaceutical patents."
Bass is the principal at Hayman Capital Management, which was formed in December 2005, and serves as the investment manager to private funds including those focused on China, Japan and the pharmaceutical industry.
He founded the Coalition for Affordable Drugs, whose main function is to challenge pharmaceutical patents and keep life-saving drug prices affordable.
Bass’s practice of filing inter partes review (IPR) petitions and publicising patent challenges against pharmaceutical companies while also allegedly betting against their share price has attracted some criticism over recent years. But Bass claims that his motive is to encourage competition in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and lower drug prices.
In 2015, Celgene requested that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) sanction Bass for filing abusive IPRs. In its motion, it explicitly accused Bass of using the IPR to short its stock. However, Celgene’s motion collapsed because the PTAB said it only rules on legal arguments.
Previously, Bass co-managed private funds with strategies focused on sub-prime credit. He is a member of the board of directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, which has approximately $35 billion in assets under management.
Bass serves on the board of directors of the Troops First Foundation and the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation. He also is a member of the Advisory Group for the Center of Asset Management at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
He has lectured at various universities including Harvard University, University of Virginia, University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Texas and Texas Christian University.
In a recent dispute involving Bass, the PTAB rejected his coalition’s IPR for the ulcer drug Vimovo (naproxen and esomeprazole magnesium) in February 2017.
Much as they were in 2016, pharmaceutical companies will be watching Bass’s movements with interest, and possibly fear, in 2017.
