Ex parte SAITO et al. - Page 11




          Appeal No. 94-4009                                   Paper No. 32           
          Application No. 07/953,716                                Page 11           
          increase in thickness.  At this stage, the lipid composition                
          of the intima consists mainly of phospholipids (lecithins,                  
          cephalins and sphingomyelins; [cited pages not of record]).                 
          Some cholesterol is present, but cholesterol esters are                     
          generally absent.                                                           
               We find nothing in Bowman that shows that atherosclerotic              
          intimal thickening necessarily precedes other contributors to               
          atherosclerosis like hyperlipidemia or hypercholesterolemia.                
          We do, however, find a reasonable suggestion that it was                    
          conventional to delay both the development and the progression              
          of atherosclerosis by treating hypercholesterolemia and                     
          hyperlipidemia (Bowman at 23.62, col. 2 ("Treatment of                      
          atherosclerosis")).                                                         
               Even if we accepted Appellants' narrower construction                  
          that treatment must occur before any atherosclerotic intimal                
          thickening had occurred, Appellants identify hyperlipidemia as              
          a promoter of smooth muscle cell activation (Paper No. 1                    
          (Spec.) at 2).  Consequently, Fujikawa's hyperlipidemia                     
          patients would inherently be treated for atherosclerotic                    
          intimal thickening.   Note that, since the claimed treatment                
          begins prior to atherosclerotic intimal thickening, the                     
          patients are still healthy in terms of intimal thickening.                  
          Consequently, the clinician would have to have had some reason              
          to suspect that the patient would benefit from prophylactic                 
          treatment for intimal thickening.  At the hearing, we asked                 





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