Patent ID: 8067398

Claim:
A polymer comprising a plurality of monomer residues being linked to one another and forming a polymer backbone, at least a portion of said monomer residues comprises residues of at least one chiral monomer, wherein each of said at least one chiral monomer is independently a derivative of a chiral amino acid having the general Formula IIa or IIb: wherein: each * independently denotes an R configuration or an S configuration; each of R and R′ is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and a side chain of an amino acid, provided that at least one of R and R′ is not hydrogen; Z is selected from the group consisting of OH, SH and NH 2 ; and W is selected from the group consisting of ═O and RaRb, whereas each of Ra and Rb is independently hydrogen or alkyl, with the proviso that when Z is NH 2 , W is not ═O, such that said chiral monomer is not an amino acid, and with the proviso that said chiral monomer is not lactic acid, wherein: when the chiral monomer has Formula IIa and W is ═O, said residue of said chiral monomer is linked by ester bonds to two monomer residues, said two monomer residues being independently selected from the group consisting of a residue of a monomer having Formula IIa, a residue of a monomer having formula IIb, an alkylene glycol residue, and a hydroxy carboxylic acid residue, wherein a chirality of said chiral monomer is maintained in said monomer residues in the polymer, and further wherein an asymmetric atom in said chiral monomer forms a part of said backbone.