Patent Move Was `Nuts,' Regeneron CEO Tells Allergan Chief

(Bloomberg) -- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Chief Executive Officer Leonard Schleifer took direct aim at a fellow CEO Thursday, saying that Allergan Plc's recent attempt to defend a drug patent by transferring it to native American tribe was a desperate move.

“It's nuts,” Schleifer said at a health conference hosted by Forbes in New York. Turning to Allergan CEO Brent Saunders, who was sitting to his right, Schleifer added: “It makes your company look bad. It makes it look desperate to circumvent our system by licensing.”

Saunders disagreed, blaming a problematic legal and patent system for his company's decision.

“The reality is, I don't think it's desperation,” he said. “We have an issue with the system.”

Before the exchange, Saunders told the panel that state universities have used similar transfer strategies in the past.

“I have no issues sleeping at night knowing that we did something to champion intellectual property in this industry,” he said.

At the center of the argument was Allergan's unusual move in September to transfer the rights its eye treatment Restasis to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in upstate New York -- as a way to shield the blockbuster from generic competition. Last month, however, a federal judge ruled the patents were invalid.

It was the second straight year Schleifer criticized a fellow drug company CEO at the Forbes health conference. In 2016, he debated with Pfizer Inc.'s Ian Read over drug pricing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jared S. Hopkins in New York at jhopkins38@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Cecile Daurat

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