- Hedge fund investor Kyle Bass, head of Dallas, TX-based Hayman Capital Management L.P., files a challenge to a key patent covering Biogen's (BIIB +0.6%) $2.9B Tecifera (dimethyl fumarate). Specifically, he is challenging the validity of U.S. Patent No. 8,759,393 entitled, "Utilization of Dialkylfumarates."
- Mr. Bass founded the group, Coalition for Affordable Drugs, which is targeting the '393 patent via a process called inter partes review, a type of patent challenge allowed by the 2012 American Invents Act. It was designed as a way to curtail the ballooning number of lawsuits by patent trolls. According to him, the group's raison d'etre is to stop companies from over-pricing drugs based on evergreening patents.
- Other companies in the crosshairs of the Coalition for Affordable Drugs include Shire (NASDAQ:SHPG) and Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ACOR).