Aspects of Polymer Erosion

The importance of non-enzymatic chemical erosion for the release of drugs from degradable polymers is discussed. In order to have purely erosion controlled systems, polymer erosion has to be faster than polymer swelling or drug diffusivity inside degradable polymers. Therefore, fast hydrolyzing polymers are especially suited for the manufacture of erosion controlled drug delivery systems. Poly(anhydrides) are one such polymer class and are presented in more detail. It is shown that it is possible to predict drug release from such systems using discrete Monte Carlo Models. Such models are useful for the design of new implant type drug delivery systems.