Baird Remains Buyers of Biogen (BIIB) Despite Kyle Bass Tecfidera Challenge
Baird analyst Christopher Raymond weighed in on Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) this afternoon following news hedge fund manager Kyle Bass has filed an IPR against a Tecfidera patent.
The analyst said the challenge does not come as a surprise and they predicted this in February after ACOR was targeted. That said, they "really struggle with the target selection – not only with Tecfidera here, but with others that have preceded this move"
The analyst cited two points:
Why go after the ‘393 patent? Unless Bass plans to go after all of Tecfidera’s patents, we struggle to understand the reasoning behind the strategy targeting this one, in that its expiration is 2019 – likely before the expiration of any Paragraph IV 30-month stay. For perspective, note that FWP is targeting BIIB’s ‘514 dosing patent that expires in 2028.
Kind of a strange pattern here. SHPG’s ‘720 patent for Lialda is already under significant scrutiny with the US Supreme Court weighing in, so we wonder if the PTAB would be willing to jump in at this point. Similarly, another IPR challenging JAZZ’s ‘059 Xyrem patent was already filed prior to Bass’ challenge, making for a strange redundancy here.
Raymond said unless they are missing something, they do not see an IPR challenge by this party as particularly worrisome for Biogen.