Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass' has answered charges he is challenging pharmaceutical and biotech patents solely to make a profit with a big “so what.”

Attorneys for the man BigPharma has accused of exploiting the patent system, and more specifically the inter partes review (IPR) proceedings created by the America Invents Act to challenge issued patents, said in a brief filed earlier this week that “having an economic motive for petitioning the government simply does not turn the petition into an abuse of process.” Skiermont Puckett attorney Sarah Spires wrote in a brief opposing a request to sanction Bass' Coalition for Affordable Drugs filed by patent owner Celgene Corp.: “At the heart of nearly every patent and nearly every IPR, the motivation is profit.”

For example, Celgene's patent on the blockbuster drug Revlimid, used for treating patients suffering from multiple myeloma, results in profits that exceed $580 per pill, or more than $200,000 per patient per year, she wrote, noting that Revlimid sales were nearly $5 billion in 2014. The brief cites a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Lear v. Adkins, that it says found it is in the public's interest for economically motivated actors to challenge patents. Celgene's accusation that the motives of Bass' coalition are not entirely altruistic is a “truthful irrelevancy,” the brief said.