DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restriction
The examiner notes that inventor has canceled all pending claims and added new claims 21-33. The subject matter of these new claims is encompassed by the original requirement for election/restriction (an election of species across the entire claim set).
112 Rejections Withdrawn
The rejections of claims 11, 13, 14, 18 and 19 under 35 USC 112(b) or 35 USC 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, outlined in the previous Office Action, have been overcome by inventor’s amendment. The amendment cancels the claims.
102 Rejections Withdrawn
The rejection of claims 1-3, 5-7, 12, 18 and 20 under 35 USC 102(a)(1), outlined in the previous Office Action, has been overcome by inventor’s amendment. The amendment cancels the claims.
Claim Objections Withdrawn
The objection to claims 4, 8-10, 16 and 17, outlined in the previous Office Action, is withdrawn. The amendment cancels the claims.
Markush Search
All claims have been examined with respect to formal matters.
Inventor having overcome the outstanding art rejection (by narrowing the definition of the senescence-associated disease or disorder), the search was expanded as called for under Markush examination practice, a compound-by-compound search, to include a single additional species. That species is: diagramed compound 1 on page 12 of WO 2021008512 A1.
All claimed and as yet unexamined subject matter which does not read on the above species is hereby withdrawn from consideration, for purposes of this Office Action, as being drawn to non-elected subject matter. This subject matter will be rejoined as appropriate as the Markush examination progresses.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102, NEW
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 21, 27 and 28, in so far as they read on the species defined above, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being clearly anticipated by WO 2021/008512 A1 (which claims priority to CN priority documents filed on 07/18/2019 and 09/10/2019).
As inventor explicitly states in the specification, it is known in the art that senescent cells are present in cancerous tissues both in preneoplastic lesions as well as the microenvironment of established tumors and that chemotherapy or irradiation treatment of tumors induces cell senescence (specification page 2, line 1). That is, senescent cells are intrinsically present in cancerous tissue, both in untreated tissue and induced in cancerous tissue that has been treated chemotherapeutically or irradiated.
WO 2021/008512 A1 teaches a method of treating inter alia a hyperproliferative disease such as liver cancer (i.e. a senescence-associated disease or disorder) by administering a NMT inhibitor, or a pharmaceutical composition containing such an inhibitor (abstract). A number of exemplified compounds are taught, for instance, the diagramed compound 1 on page 12 of WO 2021008512 A1.
Claim 28 is included in this rejection because its limitation (agent + pharmaceutical excipients) is intrinsic to pharmaceutical compositions.
Allowable Subject Matter
As previously stated, the elected species being free of the prior art, any claim, or portion of a claim, drawn exclusively to the elected species constitutes allowable subject matter. That being the case, claims 22-25 and 29-32 are objected to as being drawn to both allowable subject matter (the elected species) and well as subject matter which has not yet been completely searched.
Claims 26 and 33 (drawn exclusively to the elected species) are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN J DAVIS whose telephone number is (571)272-0638. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ali Soroush, can be reached at 571-272-9925. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN J DAVIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1614 1/30/2026