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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues (Page 2) the teachings of Anderson is moot to claimed invention teachings of (di-NACA-d6) and the teachings of MedChem fails to overcome the deuteration at the specific locations, as it is a hindsight reconstruction of claimed invention. It is noted from previous office action Anderson teaches the same compound and deuteration is well known in the art, in which MedChem teaches specifically CH3 to CD3 results in a longer half-life, low toxicity and increase tolerability and efficacy. Thus, the 103 rejection of record over Anderson in view of MedChem is maintained.
Applicant has overcome the 112b rejection of claims 14 and 16 by the amendments to the claims.
Claim 16 has been canceled. Claims 12-15 is pending. Claims 12-15 is now evaluated on its merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson et al. (WO 9118594 A) in view of MedChem News, Deuterium Medicinal Chemistry: A New Approach to Drug Discovery and Development, May 2014, Pages 8-22.
Regarding claims 12-15, Anderson teaches a method of treating diseases of chronic bronchitis, asthma, rhinitis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, malignant diseases, HIV infection - AIDS, and atherosclerotic disease comprising compounds of N,N'-diacetylcystine dimethyl or diethyl ether, or N,N'-diisovalerylcystine dimethyl ether, in racemic form or their D and L optical isomers and physiologically acceptable salts. The compound N,N'-diacetylcystine as taught by Anderson of
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ie.
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(pages 1-3).
Anderson fails to teach the above structure wherein the CH3 attached to the carbonyl has a deuterium substitution of CD3, the D3 causes enrichment about 8 to 10 points and the enrichment is within a predefined range of 0.02 mol% to 100%.
MedChem teaches deuterium substitution for hydrogen decreased acidity of carboxylic acids and phenols, increase basicity of amines, low toxicity and increase tolerability and efficacy of a drug (page 10, 2nd and last para.). MedChem additionally teaches specific examples of CH3 to CD3 substitution results in a longer half-life as shown in example 11
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and example 13
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which provided improved metabolic stability (Page 13).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have substituted the CH3 to deuterium CD3 on the
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structure taught by Anderson, wherein the substituted deuterium enrichment is within a range of 0.02 mol% to 100 mol% and 8 to 10 percentage deuterium points above the natural abundance. One would have been motivated to do so from the teachings of MedChem on CH3 to CD3 substitution is known in the art to improve metabolic stability and increase half-life of the compound/drug, thus suggesting the deuterated substitution of the above structure taught by Anderson would fall within the range of 0.02 mol% to 100 mol% and the range of 8 to 10 percentage points above the natural abundance of deuterium. There is a reasonable expectation of substituting the CH3 to CD3 on the
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structure taught by Anderson to improve metabolic stability and half-life for treating the above diseases, wherein the substituted deuterium enrichment is within a range of 0.02 mol% to 100 mol% and 8 to 10 percentage deuterium points above the natural abundance.
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.
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MIKHAIL O'DONNEL. ROBINSON
Examiner
Art Unit 1627
/MIKHAIL O'DONNEL ROBINSON/Examiner, Art Unit 1627
/SARAH PIHONAK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1627