Novartis defeats UK court bid to invalidate blockbuster drug Entresto patent

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Thursday defeated a bid to invalidate its patent for blockbuster heart drug Entresto, with London’s High Court rejecting a claim by Intas Pharmaceuticals’ Accord Healthcare which was planning a generic rival.

The ruling is a boost for Novartis as it navigates a busy period of patent expiries including for Entresto, which makes up about 10% of Novartis’ sales.

Novartis’ European patent for Entresto, which treats heart failure and can also treat hypertension, expired in 2023 though it still has a so-called supplementary protection certificate which does not expire until 2028.

Accord applied to the High Court for a ruling that Novartis’ patent had always been invalid, while Novartis counterclaimed over the threatened infringement of its patent, with Accord intending to launch a competing product later this year.

Judge Richard Meade said that “all the attacks on the patent fail”. He ruled that Novartis’ patent was valid while in force, its supplementary protection certificate was also valid and that Accord’s intended product would infringe it.

Novartis and Accord did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meade also said that Novartis’ patent was separately held to be valid after legal proceedings in the Netherlands. The company last year lost a bid in the United States to block a generic version of Entresto.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Susan Fenton)