Could is Nationwide Girls’s Well being Month, a time to lift consciousness of girls’s well being points and encourage girls to prioritize their well-being. “Girls’s well being” typically covers medical situations distinctive to girls and those who impression girls disproportionately. As an example, when in comparison with males, girls are extra liable to sure situations like melancholy, osteoporosis, and a few autoimmune problems.
Regardless of girls accounting for practically half of the worldwide inhabitants and outnumbering males in the US, girls’s well being points are sometimes underserved. Systemic inequalities in healthcare entry, analysis funding, medical trial illustration, and cultural biases persist. In consequence, girls face disparities in analysis, therapy, and total well being outcomes throughout various illnesses. Total, it’s estimated that girls “spend 25% extra of their lives unwell” than males, and practically one third of girls report that their physician has dismissed their well being considerations.
Traditionally, illnesses affecting males acquired twice as a lot funding as these affecting girls.
However change is coming. Not too long ago, the personal sector has more and more centered on the underdeveloped girls’s well being market as a chance for progress. The worldwide “femtech” market exceeded $50 billion in 2023 and will surpass $100 billion by 2028. And, whereas nonetheless a fraction of accessible funding, enterprise capital funding for girls’s well being corporations tripled from 2019 to 2024.
Because the give attention to girls’s well being points will increase, the variety of associated patent filings is predicted to extend. In reality, experiences counsel progress within the final decade within the variety of patent filings associated to breast most cancers metastasis, endometriosis, and infertility diagnostic gadgets.
Right here, we offer an outline of latest U.S. patents and purposes associated to sure girls’s well being situations.
Breast most cancers
Breast most cancers is likely one of the most ceaselessly identified cancers in girls. This yr in the US, docs will diagnose over 350,000 new instances of breast most cancers, and over 40,000 of these instances might be deadly. Latest patents construct on long-standing therapy targets.
- Hormone Receptor Modulators – Estrogen considerably influences hormone receptor optimistic (HR+) breast cancers. Thus, many inventions directed to potential breast most cancers medication goal estrogen receptor operate.
In April 2025, the USPTO granted U.S. Patent No. 12,275,684 directed to oral formulations of (Z)-endoxifen, a Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM). (Z)-endoxifen inhibits and doubtlessly degrades estrogen receptors. The patent’s assignee, Atossa Therapeutics, Inc., is at present learning (Z)-endoxifen’s potential for stopping and treating breast most cancers.
Moreover, in March 2025, Havah Therapeutics filed a provisional patent software associated to an androgen receptor agonist (HAV-088) for treating HR+ breast cancers. Androgen receptor could scale back estrogen receptor exercise and scale back tumor responsiveness to estrogen.
- Vaccines – Scientists have pursued most cancers vaccines for many years. Whereas an accredited breast most cancers vaccine is probably going years away, a number of vaccines have reached medical trials. Not too long ago, the USPTO allowed The Cleveland Clinic Basis’s patent software (Pub. No. 2024/0075115) directed in the direction of a vaccine containing human α-lactalbumin protein. This protein, usually expressed throughout lactation, can be current in sure breast cancers.
Despair
Main melancholy is likely one of the commonest psychological well being situations in the US. Girls endure from melancholy at a better charge than males, with some experiences suggesting that as much as one-third of girls expertise an episode no less than as soon as. Latest patents directed in the direction of new therapies provide hope.
- Psychedelic Medicine – Psychedelics are gaining acceptance for treating melancholy. Up to now three months, the USPTO granted to Cybin Inc. three patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 12,251,371, 12,240,813, and 12,291,499) associated to using a psilocybin-derived drug (CYB003) for main melancholy. Final yr, the FDA granted CYB003 Breakthrough Remedy Designation, thereby expediting its assessment and improvement. Cybin Inc. lately introduced optimistic outcomes from a CYB003 medical trial.
- Biomarkers for Therapy – In February 2025, Alto Neuroscience, Inc. acquired U.S. Patent No. 12,226,375 for utilizing electroencephalogram (EEG) biomarkers to information adjunctive therapy with agomelatine in sufferers unresponsive to conventional antidepressants. Agomelatine, a melatonin agonist and selective serotonin antagonist, is accredited to be used in Australia and Europe.
Endometriosis
In endometriosis, tissue that usually internally traces the uterus (endometrium) grows outdoors the uterus, leading to acute pelvic ache and, in some instances, infertility. Roughly 10% of girls endure from endometriosis. Presently, there isn’t any treatment and analysis is tough. Latest patents declare diagnostics and coverings utilizing oligonucleotides.
- Diagnostics – At the moment, endometriosis is usually identified by means of laparoscopic surgical procedure beneath basic anesthesia. A non-surgical methodology of analysis guarantees to revolutionize the sphere. In the direction of that finish, in September 2024, the USPTO granted to Yale U.S. Patent No. 12,077,803 directed in the direction of detecting endometriosis based mostly on the extent of sure micro RNAs (miRNAs) in a affected person’s blood. The claimed invention could result in the event of a non-invasive diagnostic blood take a look at.
- RNA Therapies – In October 2024, the USPTO granted to AIM ImmunoTech Inc. U.S. Patent No. 12,102,649, directed in the direction of therapeutic double-stranded RNA (tdsRNA) merchandise and strategies for treating endometriosis. The patent states that the claimed tdsRNA alters the microenvironment surrounding endometriosis tissue to cut back signs.
Fertility
Infertility is outlined by the “failure to realize a being pregnant” after one yr of attempting to conceive. The World Well being Group experiences that about one in six adults experiences infertility. Latest patents embody these for gadgets with potential purposes in synthetic insemination.
- Units – In January 2025, the USPTO revealed Inguran, LLC’s U.S. Patent Software No. 18/794,831 directed in the direction of techniques for prime throughput sorting of sperm in a microfluidic chip. The claimed system could also be used to type sperm based on chromosomes with much less harm to sperm in comparison with different strategies.
In April 2025, the USPTO granted to Femasys, Inc. U.S. Patent No. 12,268,855 directed to a synthetic insemination machine for the supply of sperm into the fallopian tubes, somewhat than the uterus.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal dysfunction the place the ovaries produce extra androgens (male intercourse hormones), resulting in ovarian cysts, irregular menstrual cycles, extra hair progress, and infertility. The World Well being Group calls PCOS “a major public well being drawback” for which there isn’t any treatment. As much as 13% of reproductive-aged girls endure from PCOS.
- GLP-1 Agonists – Sufferers with PCOS ceaselessly endure from coexisting situations, together with weight problems, insulin resistance, impaired glucose metabolism, hypertension, and an elevated threat of diabetes, amongst others. Therapies claimed in latest patents directed to GLP-1 agonists could assist fight PCOS signs. For instance, Gasherbrum Bio, Inc. has acquired no less than six U.S. patents directed in the direction of GLP-1 agonists. The newest, U.S. Patent No. 12,291,529, issued Could 6, 2025 and claims a category of heterocyclic GLP-1 agonists, which the patentee suggests could also be used to deal with PCOS amongst different illnesses.
Conclusion
The ladies’s well being market gives monumental potential for funding and innovation. Whereas challenges associated to systemic inequalities stay, progress in enterprise capital funding is encouraging. Likewise, the general improve in patent filings associated to breast most cancers, endometriosis, and different situations seems to mirror a rising curiosity in girls’s well being. Preserving and increasing these hard-fought positive factors guarantees to additional improve innovation.
Picture: FotografiaBasica, Getty Pictures
Annaka Nava is a lawyer at Goodwin Procter LLP specializing in patent litigation. She advises life sciences corporations in all levels of complicated patent litigations in federal district courts and the Worldwide Commerce Fee, from pre-suit investigations and patent portfolio analyses by means of trial. Annaka has in depth expertise in issues masking prescription drugs, biotechnology, and medical gadgets. Previous to practising legislation, Annaka performed main scientific analysis on the genetic causes of breast most cancers at The Sidney Kimmel Complete Most cancers Middle in Baltimore. She holds a grasp’s diploma in pathobiology from the Johns Hopkins College College of Medication.
Lana Shiferman is a lawyer at Goodwin Procter LLP specializing in patent litigation. She has represented shoppers in all phases of litigation from pre-litigation counseling by means of trial and enchantment. Lana has represented each patent homeowners and patent defendants in federal courts all through the nation and on the Worldwide Commerce Fee. Lana has additionally represented shoppers in trans-border disputes in international locations such because the UK, Germany, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. She has litigated instances involving a broad vary of applied sciences together with diagnostics, synthetic organ tissue, blood glucose monitoring techniques and pharmaceutical merchandise.
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