New York (HedgeCo.net) – Kyle Bass probably isn’t on the invitation lists of very many biotech and pharma companies’ holiday lists, but the head of one biotech firm recently stated that Bass isn’t the problem.
In an interview on CNBC’s Fast Money, Dr. Ron Cohen, President and CEO of Acorda, stated that “Kyle Bass is actually not the problem. He is unimportant in the sense that he is a symptom of a bigger disease here—because he’s exploiting a weakness in a system that Congress created a couple of years ago.”
The weakness Cohen is referencing is the process of Inter Partes Review. IPR, as it has become known as, was instituted to protect companies from investors that could misuse patent laws. According to Dr. Cohen it has had the opposite effect.
“What this new IPR system has done is to create a second system that companies like mine have to deal with, along with the existing Hatch-Waxman system and that’s dangerous,” he said. “It’s scaring away investors who as it is, have to wait between 10 and 15 years for us to successfully develop a drug,” Cohen added.
Dr. Ron Cohen of CNBC’s Fast Money
Bass argues that he is trying to help consumers by lowering drug prices across the board and that is why he formed the Coalition for Affordable Drugs. He just happens to stand to make a lot of money should some the patents he challenges get their patent protection revoked or shortened.
Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest
