Posted by Michael Wonder on 10 Apr 2017
How patent trolls sparked a failed assault on high drug prices
11 April 2017 - Kyle Bass caused high anxiety for big pharma.
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass appears to be wrapping up a generally unsuccessful patent-law assault on drug manufacturers. “In the end, lobbying and special interests pay,” Bass told Bloomberg in a defeatist-sounding email. “Medicare and U.S. consumers pay the ultimate price for the evergreening of bad patents by the pharma cabal.”
As Bass retreats, it’s worth pausing to assess why his offensive, begun in early 2015, caused high anxiety in the drug industry.
A Bass-sponsored group called the Coalition for Affordable Drugs targeted 14 medicines, using a special procedure established by a 2012 patent-reform law. Congress intended the procedure, known as inter partes review (IPR), as a tool for tech companies fending off patent “trolls,” outfits that acquire patents and threaten litigation as a way of obtaining cash settlements.
