Mon, Jul 10th 2023
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has lost a lawsuit in the USA over a patent for its heart drug Entresto.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware had declared the combination patent for Entresto invalid, a spokesman said on Friday evening when asked about rumors that the stock market had dragged down the Novartis share price.
According to media reports, the court ruled that Novartis’ patent claims were invalid due to the lack of a written description. Novartis sued several drug manufacturers in 2019 because they had developed generic versions that allegedly violated Entresto’s patent.
Novartis will appeal the district court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the pharmaceutical company announced on Friday evening. The group will “continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights related to Entresto, including the combination patent and several patents covering additional innovations.”
According to the Novartis spokesman, however, according to the current state of knowledge, no generic Entresto product has received approval from the US drug authority. Pending a final appeal decision and other ongoing litigation involving multiple patents, any launch after FDA approval of a generic drug faces the risk of subsequent litigation, the spokesman said.
Novartis shares fell significantly in late Swiss stock trading in the afternoon after the first rumors about the lost judgment became known. At its worst, the shares lost nearly 4.7% of their value. In the end, the stocks closed at minus 3.15% and tore down the entire SMI shortly before the market closed because of their weight.
In the first quarter, Novartis made just under $1.4 billion with the sale of Entresto. For comparison, the company’s total revenue for the first quarter was $12.9 billion.
This article was reprinted with permission from Keystone SDA.
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