In what represents the first patenting from Munich, Germany-based Meliodys Medical UG, its co-founder and chief executive officer Simone Sabbione describes their development of a hormone-free, local pain management approach for treating dysmenorrhea, which aims to address the condition while minimizing the occurrence of side effects.

In Ciconia Medical Inc.’s first patenting, the company’s founder and CEO, Roni Cantor-Balan, describes the development of a cervical measurement device for childbirth progress monitoring that replaces the manual vaginal examinations undertaken during labor.

After decades of being woefully under-diagnosed and all but ignored by the biotech and pharma industry, recent advances in understanding its complex etiology could be opening the way to new treatments for endometriosis. Impetus is coming from (modest) increases in funding for basic research, such as the Biden administration’s $200 million for women’s health research and NIH grants under an ‘Advancing cures and therapies and ending endometriosis diagnostic delays’ call announced in March of this year.

Swiss scientists developed hydrogel implants that could help prevent and treat endometriosis by blocking the fallopian tubes and stopping the passage of endometrial cells. The implants, though in their early stage of development, bode well for the millions of women suffering from the chronic condition.

Novocuff Inc. closed an oversubscribed $26 million series A funding round to support further development of the Novocuff cervical control system, which is designed to reduce preterm births by closing the cervix in high-risk pregnancies. The funds will enable the company to undertake a U.S. multi-center pivotal clinical trial, pursue marketing authorization, expand its team and begin early-stage commercialization of the device.

Clarius Mobile Health Corp. received U.S. FDA clearance for the Clarius OB artificial intelligence biometric measurement tool, which is designed to improve access to accurate prenatal monitoring in low-resource regions. The system automatically estimates fetal age, weight and growth intervals critical to assessing fetal health and early identification of potential issues and multiple pregnancies.

Femasys Inc. received CE mark for four women’s health products – Femaseed, Femvue, Femcerv and Femcath – after obtaining certification under the EU Medical Device Regulation. This allows the company to expand its market reach and it will now focus on delivering its innovative solutions for women’s reproductive health within the EU.

Nuvo Group Ltd. recently completed a business combination with Los Angeles Media Fund (LAMF) Global Ventures Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, and became a listed company in a bid to bring its Invu pregnancy monitoring and management platform to as many women as possible. “We are totally focused on women's health and trying to drive better outcomes through pregnancy care,” Rice Powell, CEO of Nuvo, told BioWorld.

In March, the U.S. FDA reported a major shortage of Rhogam, the anti-D immune globulin most widely used to prevent Rh factor incompatibility in pregnancy. Without treatment, second and subsequent pregnancies can be endangered by antibodies created by the mother. With the shortage, the standard treatment of two shots for all pregnant females with Rh-negative blood can be challenging, but Billiontoone Inc.’s Unity prenatal test can eliminate the need for the immune globulin treatment in 40% of these pregnancies.

Serac Healthcare Ltd.’s imaging agent, 99m Tc-maraciclatide, enables visualization of early-stage endometriosis, preliminary data from a study presented last week at the Society for Reproductive Investigation conference in Vancouver demonstrated. With millions of women suffering from the debilitating condition globally, maraciclatide has the potential to not only help with diagnosis but also with the development of new therapeutics, David Hail, CEO of Serac, told BioWorld.