Interference No. 103,854
certain organs. Id. Thus, we agree with the examiner that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art to encapsulate a pharmaceutical agent such as a TBP multimer in a
liposome in order to reduce toxicity, retain activity, and increase the half-life of said multimer.
Moreover, assuming, arguendo, that we agreed with Wallach that one of ordinary skill
in the art would have understood that claim 7 is directed to a TBP multimer comprising
monomers which are directly or indirectly linked to the surface of liposomes,12 we would
nevertheless hold that it would have been obvious to anchor a TNF-R multimer to the
surface of a liposome in view of the teachings of Utsumi. As we discussed above, Utsumi
discloses that liposomes are useful as nontoxic carriers of pharmaceutical agents, in general,
and that they are particularly suitable for hydrophobic drugs. Utsumi, p. 3362, col. 1, last
para. Utsumi further discloses that the pharmaceutical agent, TNF, can be anchored to the
liposome surface via its amino-terminus because “this is akin to the orientation of the
transmembrane prohormone on the effector cell surface.” Id., p. 3365, col. 2, lines 3-6.
Since a TBP multimer which comprises two or more monomers is open to the inclusion of the
transmembrane portion of the monomer (see Figure 2 of the Wallach specification), we hold
that it would have been obvious to anchor said multimer to the surface of a liposome in the
manner suggested by Utsumi.
With respect to Wallach’s argument as to whether TBP multimers would show affinity
for liposomes,13 we point out that Utsumi teaches that liposomes are useful as carriers for
any pharmaceutical agent. That they may be more suitable for hydrophobic drugs does not
12 Brief, p. 39, lines 7-9 and footnote 22, referring to para. 19 of the Statement of
Facts.
13 Brief, p. 39.
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