Chemistry of polymer biodegradation and implications on parenteral drug delivery.

Most polymeric implants are biodegraded by one of two common chemical degradation mechanisms: (i). hydrolysis and (ii). oxidation. The chemical structure is among the most important factors which affect the biodegradation of polymeric implants. Hydrolytic biodegradations are often accompanied by substantial decrease of pH, whilst oxidative biodegradation processes are usually very slow due to consumption of stoichiometric amounts of oxidising agents. A dramatic acceleration of the biodegradation can be expected, if the biodegradation can be initiated by catalytic amounts of oxidation agents. Poly(ethylene carbonate) (PEC) and poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) are presumably biodegraded by such catalytic oxidation processes. Their biodegradation shows all the characteristics of surface erosion. Poly(ethylene carbonate) is utilised as a surface eroding biocompatible polymer for controlled delivery of peptide and protein drugs.