Patent ID: 7939094

Claim:
A method for modulating a rate of release of a therapeutic agent from a release region that constitutes at least a portion of an implantable or insertable medical device and that controls the rate at which the therapeutic is released from the medical device, said method comprising: (a) providing a release region for said implantable or insertable medical device, said release region comprising a therapeutic agent and polymer composition that comprises three or more immiscible polymer phases, wherein at least two of said immiscible phases are provided by a block or graft copolymer and wherein at least one of said immiscible phases corresponds to an alternating or random maleic anhydride copolymer; and (b) modulating the therapeutic agent release rate characteristic of the release region by increasing the amount of the polymer that corresponds to at least one of the immiscible polymer phases relative to the total amount of polymer in the release region that is formed.