Acorda Therapeutics Shares Surge

A U.S. patent review board on Monday declined to review petitions brought by hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass, who has sought to employ an unusual trading strategy of challenging patents held by pharmaceutical companies and profiting from declines in their stock prices.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's review board ruled against Mr. Bass's challenge of two patents on Acorda Therapeutics Inc.'s multiple sclerosis drug Ampyra. In written decisions posted on its website on Monday, the board said the petitions hadn't shown a reasonable likelihood they would prevail if granted a review.

A representative for Ms. Bass didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of Acorda rose 27.7% to $36.99 in after-hours trading on Monday.

The patent challenges were filed by the Coalition for Affordable Drug Prices, an organization created by Mr. Bass. The Coalition has filed more than 20 challenges against pharmaceutical patents held by companies including Celgene Corp., Biogen Inc., and Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., according to data on the patent office's website. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Mr. Bass has pitched wealthy investors to invest in a dedicated fund that would bet against, or short, shares of companies whose patents Mr. Bass believes are weak.

Mr. Bass, head of Hayman Capital Management LP, is using a process for challenging patents known as Inter Partes Review, or IPR, that is a cheaper and faster option than trials in federal courts. The IPR process, which was established in 2011 to fight so-called patent trolls, has proved to be an effective way for technology companies to invalidate patents they say are spurious.

Use of IPR challenges against drug patents has raised concerns in the pharmaceutical industry, which has lobbied Congress for changes to the IPR process. The patent board's ruling Monday against Mr. Bass, however, may signal that challenging pharmaceutical patents through IPR won't be as easy as some industry officials have feared, said Gerald Flattmann, lead outside counsel for Acorda in its IPR proceedings with Mr. Bass.

"What we can glean from this is the patent office isn't going to rubber stamp any such challenge and is going to look at them quite critically," Mr. Flattmann, a partner with Paul Hastings in New York, said in an interview.

Write to Joseph Walker at [e-mail]

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August 24, 2015 20:35 ET (00:35 GMT)

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