Appeal No. 2000-0643
Application 08/273,423
retinoic acid (RA), to prevent corticosteroid-induced skin atrophy without compromising
the anti-inflammatory properties of the steroids. Page 186.
The examiner cites a single example in Lesnik wherein betamethasone valerate
cream was applied to mouse skin “in the AM,” followed by RA “in the PM” (page 187,
column 1, paragraph 2) and concludes that “[o]ne of ordinary skill would have been
motivated to employ both agents together in a skin-treating composition since they are
known to be useful in a single therapeutic regimen for the treatment of the skin.”
In addition, we note that Lesnik describes other protocols, which differ from that
cited by the examiner, in that RA is administered immediately after fluocinolone acetonide
or triamcinolone acetonide (both of which are corticosteroids). Regardless of the timing,
administration of RA prevents corticosteroid-induced skin atrophy. Further examples
demonstrate that administration of RA does not interfere with the anti-inflammatory effects
of the corticosteroids. Page 187. Thus, applying a corticosteroid and RA together would
not appear to present a problem, and the examiner’s proposed reason for combining them
in a single composition for the treatment of inflammatory skin disorders seems plausible at
first blush.
Nevertheless, claim 1 requires a composition containing a corticosteroid and a
Vitamin A derivative in amounts effective for the treatment of hair loss. The examiner
touches on this briefly; on the one hand dismissing the recitation “for the treatment of hair
loss” as a mere statement of intended use, while on the other hand asserting that “[t]he
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