Bioresorbable Polymer Design: Advantages of a “Block Copolymer”

Poly-Med’s bioresorbable polymers offer customized product options for our customers. Copolymers present advantages not usually seen in homopolymers. For this reason, many of the bioresorbable polymers are a copolymer type, such as PGLA. We take this advantage one step further and involve the polymer architecture to modulate the properties of a given material. For example, a material can have the same composition (example 90/10 PGLA) but if assembled in a different manner (linear vs. branched or block versus random as discussed earlier), different properties can be generated. Many of Poly-Med’s polymers utilize such architecture to provide the properties required by a customer for the given indication.

Copolymers can also be synthesized in different manners to provide differentiation amongst block copolymers. The idea behind this method involves the placement of monomer “blocks” in specific locations throughout the polymer. For example, monomers can be placed wholly in the core of a polymer and will only provide such properties in the center of a chain versus placement of blocks throughout the polymer. The polymers:

A-A-A-B-B-B-B-B-B-A-A-A

and

A-A-B-B-B-A-A-B-B-B-A-A

A and B represent different monomers, and are both polymers of the same composition. Though, due to the construction of the polymer these two materials have different properties. Some polymers exhibit natural blocking during polymerization, e.g. some monomers tend to congregate independent of one another (This is due to differing reaction kinetics amongst monomers). To control this, many chemists use a “pre-polymer” approach to allow for a two-step polymerization which can allow for more consistent preparation.

Poly-Med has over 500 different polymerization methods and also have chemists developing bioresorbable material a customer requires. Our more than 20 years of experience allow for confidence in the fact that a reproducible, medical grade material will be prepared to your specifications. Once transferred to manufacturing, that material will be prepared in our ISO 13485/9001 manufacturing environment.

We look forward to helping with your bioresorbable material need. Please feel free to contact us or visit us at poly-med.com