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.