Abraham J. Domb & Neeraj Kumar 
Biodegradable Polymers in Clinical Use and Clinical Development 

This book focuses on biodegradable polymers that are already in
clinical use or under clinical development. Synthetic and natural
polymers will be included. This excludes polymers that have been
investigated and did not reach clinical development.



The purpose of this book is to provide updated status of the
polymers that are clinical use and those that are now being
developed for clinical use and hopefully will reach the clinic
during the next 5 years. The book provides information that of
interest to academics and practicing researchers including
chemists, biologists and bioengineers and users: physicians,
pharmacists.

Table of Content

CONTRIBUTORS.

PREFACE.

PART I GENERAL.

1 Biodegradable Polymers in Drug Delivery (Jay Prakash Jain,
Wubante Yenet, Abraham J. Domb, and Neeraj Kumar).

PART II BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS OF NATURAL ORIGIN:
PROTEIN-BASED POLYMERS.

2 Collagen (Wahid Khan, Deepak Yadav, Abraham J. Domb, and
Neeraj Kumar).

3 Properties and Hemostatic Application of Gelatin (Jalindar
Totre, Diana Ickowicz, and Abraham J. Domb).

PART III BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS OF NATURAL ORIGIN:
POLYSACCHARIDES.

4 Chitosan and Its Derivatives in Clinical Use and Applications
(Anuradha Subramanian, Kirthanashri Srinivasan Vasanthan, Uma
Maheswari Krishnan, and Swaminathan Sethuraman).

5 Clinical Uses of Alginate (Udi Nussinovitch and Amos
Nussinovitch).

6 Dextran and Pentosan Sulfate — Clinical Applications
(Ramu Parthasarathi and Athipettah Jayakrishnan).

7 Arabinogalactan in Clinical Use (Rajendra P. Pawar,
Babasaheb A. Kushekar, Bhaskar S. Jadhav, Kiran R. Kharat,
Ravikumar M. Borade, and Abraham J. Domb).

PART IV BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS OF NATURAL ORIGIN:
POLYESTERS.

8 Polyhydroxyalkanoate (Kesaven Bhubalan, Wing-Hin Lee, and
Kumar Sudesh).

PART V SYNTHETIC BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS.

9 Lactide and Glycolide Polymers (Kevin Letchford, Anders
Sodergard, David Plackett, Samuel Gilchrist, and Helen
Burt).

10 Polyanhydrides Poly(CPP-SA), Fatty-Acid-Based Polyanhydrides
(Ravikumar M. Borade, Abraham J. Domb, Archana A. Sawale,
Rajendra P. Pawar, and Kiran R. Kharat).

11 Poly(e-Caprolactone-co-Glycolide): Biomedical Applications of
a Unique Elastomer (Kevin Cooper, Aruna Nathan, and Murty
Vyakarnam).

12 Medicinal Applications of Cyanoacrylate (Rajendra P.
Pawar, Ashok E. Jadhav, Sumangala B. Tathe, Bhimrao C. Khade, and
Abraham J. Domb).

13 Polyethylene Glycol in Clinical Application and PEGylated
Drugs (Teerapol Srichana, and Tan Suwandecha).

PART VI INORGANIC POLYMERS.

14 Calcium-Phosphate-Based Ceramics for Biomedical Applications
(Qing Lv, Kevin W.-H. Lo, Lakshmi S. Nair, and Cato T.
Laurencin).

PART VII BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS FOR EMERGING CLINICAL
USES.

15 Biocompatible Polymers for Nucleic Acid Delivery (Jeff
Sparks, and Khursheed Anwer).

16 Biodegradable Polymers for Emerging Clinical Use in Tissue
Engineering (Shalini Verma, Kalpna Garkhal, Anupama Mittal, and
Neeraj Kumar).

17 Injectable Polymers (Shimon A. Unterman, Norman A. Marcus,
and Jennifer H. Elisseeff).

PART VIII IPR ASPECTS OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS.

18 Global Patent and Technological Status of Biodegradable
Polymers in Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering (Parikshit
Bansal, Shalini Verma, Wahid Khan, and Neeraj Kumar).

Index.

About the author

ABRAHAM J. DOMB is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural
Products at the School of Pharmacy, the Hebrew University.
Following time at Syntex Research in California, and MIT/Harvard as
a research associate, he founded and headed the Drug Delivery and
Polymer division at Nova Pharmaceuticals in Baltimore. Dr. Domb’s
primary research interests are in biopolymers, gene therapy,
controlled drug delivery, cancer therapy, biodegradable polymers,
hydrogels, coating of medical devices, nanoparticulate systems, and
polymeric complexes.

NEERAJ KUMAR is Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics at the
National Institute of Pharmaceutical & Educational Research
(NIPER), India. He obtained his Ph D at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Roorkee, India, before being appointed as Lady Davis
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr.
Kumar’s current interests are in biomaterials, tissue engineering,
drug delivery, and hydrogels.

AVIVA EZRA is a researcher at the Institute of Drug Research,
School of Pharmacy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned
her Ph D in pharmaceutics from the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Ezra’s
research interests include pharmaceutics, drug delivery systems,
and pharmaceutical analysis.