- An alliance of large lobbying organizations, including the American Hospital Association and America's Health Insurance Plans, has sent a letter to Congress opposing Allergan's (AGN -0.3%) recent legal maneuver with the St. Regis Mohawk tribe aimed at maintaining patent protection for dry eye med RESTASIS (Cyclosporine Ophthalmic Emulsion), a $1.5B franchise.
- Critics regard the move as egregiously prioritizing profits over patients adding that CEO Brent Saunders is behaving like pharma bad boy Martin Shkreli.
- Soon after the deal was done, St. Regis went to court to stop an inter partes review (IPR) of the patent.
- Mr. Saunders appears unmoved over the furor, saying, "IPR’s flaws have been exploited by generic manufacturers and a new breed of “reverse trolls.” There have been many cases of hedge funds that demanded cash from branded biopharma companies as a payoff for not filing IPR challenges. Allergan has been the target of one of these extortion-like attacks. Hedge funds have also taken short positions in companies and then filed IPR challenges to drive down their stock value."
- Previously: Allergan uses legal maneuver with sovereign tribal government to protect Restasis patents (Sept. 8)
- Now read: Allergan: Growth Is Dead
Original article