US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues allowance for patent of progesterone use in pre-term birth prevention

As reported by ag-ip-news.com the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued an allowance for using progesterone to treat or prevent pre-term births. The allowance is a precursor to the actual patent issuance itself. Specifically, the allowance is directed at progesterone treatment of women with a short cervix in the middle of pregnancy.

To begin with, progesterone is an important female hormone (though it is also found in males) involved in regulating menstruation and pregnancy. Normally, pre-term birth (before 37 weeks of gestation) can put a baby at greater risk of undesirable complications. Since one of the major predictors of pre-term birth is a short cervix in the middle of pregnancy, this allowance might be another step in reducing the mortality of infants.