ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,290,497, issued on May 6, was assigned to SANTEN PHARMACEUTICAL Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).

"Agent containing 4-phenylbutyrate, for preventing or treating presbyopia" was invented by Masatomo Kato (Nara, Japan), Tomoko Oda (Nara, Japan) and Kensuke Nozaki (Osaka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure provides an agent for treating or preventing eye diseases such as presbyopia, comprising, as an active ingredient, 4-phenylbutyric acid or an ester thereof, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof."

The patent was filed on Dec. 17, 2019, under Application No. 17/414,286.

*For further information, including images, ...