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24 February 2016Americas

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”.


More on this story

Americas
11 December 2015   The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has rejected the Coalition for Affordable Drugs' attempt to invalidate a patent covering Pozen’s Vimovo (naproxen and esomeprazole magnesium) drug.
Big Pharma
17 November 2015   Biopharmaceutical company Celgene has finally found success in fending off a challenge to one of its patents from Kyle Bass’s organisation the Coalition for Affordable Drugs.
Americas
25 February 2016   The Coalition for Affordable Drugs and Anacor Pharmaceuticals will face off in a dispute over the validity of two anti-fungal patents after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board gave the go-ahead to two inter partes review petitions.

More on this story

Americas
11 December 2015   The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has rejected the Coalition for Affordable Drugs' attempt to invalidate a patent covering Pozen’s Vimovo (naproxen and esomeprazole magnesium) drug.
Big Pharma
17 November 2015   Biopharmaceutical company Celgene has finally found success in fending off a challenge to one of its patents from Kyle Bass’s organisation the Coalition for Affordable Drugs.
Americas
25 February 2016   The Coalition for Affordable Drugs and Anacor Pharmaceuticals will face off in a dispute over the validity of two anti-fungal patents after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board gave the go-ahead to two inter partes review petitions.