Appeal No. 94-4129
Application 07/953,439
Assuming that the evidence before us represents the full
field of the invention and the entire body of technological
literature to be considered by persons having ordinary skill
in the art in determining unpatentability under 35 U.S.C. §
103, we must reverse the examiner’s holding. We find no
evidence in the prior art which would have led persons having
ordinary skill in the art either to reasonably believe that
galanthamine should be administered transdermally for any
particular therapeutic benefit or to reasonably expect that
galanthamine could be administered transdermally with a
likelihood of therapeutic success.
The prior art reasonably would have taught persons having
ordinary skill in the art that galanthamine and physostigmine
are both reversibly acting cholinesterase inhibitors and that
both can be used to treat Alzheimer’s Disease when
administered in accordance with conventional wisdom in the
art. However, the prior art of record would not have led
persons having ordinary skill in the art to reasonably believe
that active agents possessing some particular property or
properties are more
or less likely to be administrable transdermally than active
agents not possessing those properties with therapeutic
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