Other

Ast Products, Inc.

Texas Stent Technologies, Inc.

Shih-Horng Su

Min-Shyan Sheu

Robert C Eberhart

George W Ousler, Iii

Tung-Liang Lin

An expandable biodegradable polymeric stent is fabricated with biodegradable polymer fibers (Poly-L-lactic acid, PLLA) in a coil shape that is constructed with both central and external or internal peripheral lobes. It is delivered and expanded using a conventional angioplasty balloon system. The disclosed stent can serve as a temporary scaffold for coronary vessels after PTCA or for peripheral endovascular stenting, or it can provide mechanical palliation for strictures of ductile organs (trachea, esophagus, bile and pancreatic ducts, ureter etc.). The disclosed stent also serves as a unique device for specific local drug delivery. Therapeutic agents (chemical compounds, protein enzyme and DNA sequences) and cells can be loaded into the stent and gradually released to target tissues. Local radiation therapy can also be delivered by a specially adapted stent.

Expandable biodegradable polymeric stents for combined mechanical support and pharmacological or radiation therapy

A method of coating a polymer onto an implant having at least one interstice. The method includes (1) providing a solution containing a polymer; (2) applying the solution onto the implant; (3) and removing the solution spanning the interstice by (a) contacting the outer surface of the implant with a surface of a substrate, so that the solution spanning the interstice is drawn to the surface of the substrate via affinity between them; or by (b) bursting and removing the solution spanning the interstice on the implant with an air pressure difference before drying; and (4) drying the solution to form a coating.

Methods for coating implants

A method of preparing a polymeric demulcent-containing ophthalmic composition. The method includes immersing a polymeric demulcent in water or in an aqueous solution containing one or more ingredients, agitating the water or solution at 25 to 45&deg; C. until the polymeric demulcent is dissolved to form a polymeric demulcent-containing solution, and optionally adding one or more other ingredients to the polymeric demulcent-containing solution.

Preparation of ophthalmic compositions

An aqueous ophthalmic solution containing 0.2 to 2.5 percent by weight a polymeric demulcent, 0.045 to 0.065 percent by weight a calcium salt, and 0.14 to 1.4 percent by weight a phosphate salt. The solution has a viscosity of 20 to 150 centipoise and is buffered to a pH 5.5 to 8.5.

Growing community of inventors

Westford, MA, United States of America

Shih-Horng Su