Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
11 pending office actions • 6 art units • 10 examiners • 0 of 11 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Astellas Pharma Inc. maintains a portfolio with 11 pending office actions concentrated in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These actions are distributed across 6 distinct art units, indicating a diverse range of subject matter within the life sciences sector. The workload is spread among 10 distinct examiners, suggesting that the company encounters a variety of examination styles and interpretations of patent law.
WESTERBERG, NISSA M is identified as the busiest examiner for the portfolio, currently overseeing 2 pending cases. This represents a small portion of the 11 total pending office actions, highlighting a decentralized prosecution strategy where no single examiner dominates the company's legal landscape. The presence of 10 distinct examiners implies that the portfolio requires broad expertise to manage effectively.
Practitioners should note that while the busiest examiner has 2 pending actions, the remaining pending office actions are handled by different individuals. This distribution minimizes the risk of a single examiner's bias affecting the entire portfolio but increases the administrative complexity of tracking multiple simultaneous negotiations. Maintaining a consistent approach across 6 distinct art units is essential for this volume of work.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 4 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 4 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 3 (27%) |
| §103 only | 2 (18%) |
| §112 only | 1 (9%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 3 (27%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (18%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| WESTERBERG, NISSA M | 2 | 23.4% | +37.1% |
| ELENISTE, PIERRE PAUL | 1 | 35.5% | +31.2% |
| MOORE, SUSANNA | 1 | 68.1% | +31.6% |
| WHITEMAN, BRIAN A | 1 | 68.5% | +16.7% |
| BAUER, BRIANNA LEE | 1 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| FORRISTALL, JOSHUA L | 1 | 63.9% | +17.1% |
| SKELDING, ZACHARY S | 1 | 59.7% | +41.2% |
| OH, TAYLOR V | 1 | 81.2% | +15.3% |
| TRAN, CHRISTINA L | 1 | 51.6% | +48.2% |
| NATARAJAN, MEERA | 1 | 62.5% | +18.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18566516 | METHODS OF USE OF PPAR AGONIST COMPOUNDS AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS THEREOF | BAUER, BRIANNA LEE | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17783591 | ANTISENSE GUIDE RNA WITH ADDED FUNCTIONAL REGION FOR EDITING TARGET RNA | TRAN, CHRISTINA L | 117d overdue |
| 18279103 | Methods of Reducing Risk of Prostate Cancer Progression | OH, TAYLOR V | 17d overdue |
| 18723117 | SUBSTITUTED QUINOLINE DERIVATIVE | MOORE, SUSANNA | — |
| 18710652 | INDOCYANINE COMPOUND-CONTAINING SOLID PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — |
| 18291487 | A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION FOR IMAGING | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — |
| 18269531 | GUIDE RNA FOR EDITING POLYADENYLATION SIGNAL SEQUENCE OF TARGET RNA | WHITEMAN, BRIAN A | — |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17783591 | ANTISENSE GUIDE RNA WITH ADDED FUNCTIONAL REGION FOR EDITING TARGET RNA | TRAN, CHRISTINA L | 117d overdue |
| 17632157 | COMBINATION THERAPY INVOLVING ANTIBODIES AGAINST CLAUDIN 18.2 AND IMMUNE CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS FOR TREATMENT OF CANCER | NATARAJAN, MEERA | 31d overdue |
| 18279103 | Methods of Reducing Risk of Prostate Cancer Progression | OH, TAYLOR V | 17d overdue |
| 18563354 | MACHINE LEARNING METHODS TO PREDICT MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OPTIONS | FORRISTALL, JOSHUA L | 5d overdue |
| 18845652 | HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUND FOR INDUCING DEGRADATION OF G12D MUTANT KRAS PROTEIN | ELENISTE, PIERRE PAUL | — |
| 18723117 | SUBSTITUTED QUINOLINE DERIVATIVE | MOORE, SUSANNA | — |
| 18710652 | INDOCYANINE COMPOUND-CONTAINING SOLID PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — |
| 18291487 | A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION FOR IMAGING | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1623 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| 1674 | 1 |
| 1625 | 1 |
| 1637 | 1 |
| 1643 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18845652 | HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUND FOR INDUCING DEGRADATION OF G12D MUTANT KRAS PROTEIN | ELENISTE, PIERRE PAUL | — | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 10, 2024 |
| 18723117 | SUBSTITUTED QUINOLINE DERIVATIVE | MOORE, SUSANNA | — | §101§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2024 |
| 18710652 | INDOCYANINE COMPOUND-CONTAINING SOLID PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 16, 2024 |
| 18291487 | A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION FOR IMAGING | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | — | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
| 18269531 | GUIDE RNA FOR EDITING POLYADENYLATION SIGNAL SEQUENCE OF TARGET RNA | WHITEMAN, BRIAN A | — | §101§102§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 19, 2024 |
| 18566516 | METHODS OF USE OF PPAR AGONIST COMPOUNDS AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS THEREOF | BAUER, BRIANNA LEE | 1623 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 01, 2023 |
| 18563354 | MACHINE LEARNING METHODS TO PREDICT MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OPTIONS | FORRISTALL, JOSHUA L | 2857 | §103 | Final Rejection | 5d overdue | Pending | Nov 21, 2023 |
| 18552113 | COMBINATION THERAPY INVOLVING ANTIBODIES AGAINST CLAUDIN 18.2 FOR TREATMENT OF CANCER | SKELDING, ZACHARY S | 1674 | §102§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 22, 2023 |
| 18279103 | Methods of Reducing Risk of Prostate Cancer Progression | OH, TAYLOR V | 1625 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 17d overdue | Pending | Aug 28, 2023 |
| 17783591 | ANTISENSE GUIDE RNA WITH ADDED FUNCTIONAL REGION FOR EDITING TARGET RNA | TRAN, CHRISTINA L | 1637 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | 117d overdue | Pending | Jun 08, 2022 |
| 17632157 | COMBINATION THERAPY INVOLVING ANTIBODIES AGAINST CLAUDIN 18.2 AND IMMUNE CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS FOR TREATMENT OF CANCER | NATARAJAN, MEERA | 1643 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 31d overdue | Pending | Feb 01, 2022 |
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