Bass returns funds but vows to continue pharma fight
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass has returned almost $700 million to investors that backed his inter partes review (IPR) challenges, but has vowed to continue challenging pharmaceutical patents after being given the green light to tackle another.
The Coalition for Affordable Drugs, an organisation linked to Bass, had an IPR request targeting a patent covering Pozen’s drug Vimovo (naproxen/esomeprazole magnesium) accepted on Monday, February 22.
According to the Financial Times, Bass has returned “most” of the $700 million he raised from investors but still has around $80 million left to continue financing his challenges in the future.
“We have all the capital we need to pursue everything to its logical conclusion at the patent office. We are not stopping,” he told the newspaper.
So far, Bass has been involved in 37 IPRs against biotechnology and pharma companies. Eleven have been rejected and seven accepted. The rest are pending.
Last year, biopharma company Celgene demanded that Bass be sanctioned, but the PTAB declined the request.
Also, in response to a challenge filed by Bass, Acorda Therapeutics argued that “allowing hedge funds to use the IPR process to manipulate financial markets” was inconsistent with Congressional intent.
Vimovo, a patent for which is challenged in the latest IPR, is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
In December, the PTAB rejected Bass’s challenge to invalidate a different Vimovo patent.
But in Monday’s ruling, a three-judge panel on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which rules on IPRs, said Bass had established a “reasonable likelihood” of succeeding at trial.
The patent targeted is US number 8,945,621.
The PTAB added that it had “not made a final determination with respect to the patentability of any claim”.