Supreme Court Rebuffs Challenge of Novartis’ Entresto Patent

The US Supreme Court declined to consider a petition from MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc. challenging the validity of a patent covering Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.‘s blockbuster drug Entresto.

The case involves a Novartis patent covering Entresto and describing a “combination” of two other drugs—valsartan and sacubitril. The commercial product, which has brought in more than $3 billion in annual sales for Novartis, is in a complexed form that wasn’t discovered until four years after the patent’s priority date. The MSN generic is similarly a drug complex.

MSN argued in its petition for certiorari the US Court of Appeals for the Federal ...