ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,295,946, issued on May 13, was assigned to SANTEN PHARMACEUTICAL Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).

"Pharmaceutical formulations comprising a pyridylaminoacetic acid compound" was invented by Naveed Shams (Emeryville, Calif.), Henk-Andre Kroon (Emeryville, Calif.), Hisashi Kawata (Osaka, Japan) and Noriko Kawabata (Osaka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided is a pharmaceutical preparation for treatment or prevention of glaucoma or ocular hypertension, comprising 0.0003 to 0.01% (w/v) of isopropyl (6-{[4-(pyrazol-1-yl)benzyl] (pyridin-3-ylsulfonyl)aminomethyl}pyridin-2-ylamino)acetate, or a salt thereof."

The patent was filed on Sept. 11...