Patent ID: 7772286

Claim:
A copolymer, which is the reaction product of (a) a first prepolymer comprising a bioactive moiety B and at least one radically polymerizable group, being (i) a polyvinyl alcohol having a weight average molecular weight of at least 500 that, based on the number of hydroxyl groups of the polyvinyl alcohol, comprises (i-a) from 0.5 to 80% structural units of formula (1); and (i-b) from 0.1 to 25% structural units of formula (3); wherein X is —S—, —NH—, —O—, or —OC(O)—; and T is linear or branched C 1 -C 20 -alkylene, which may be substituted by hydroxyl and/or interrupted by one or more —O—, —NHC(O)—, —C(O)NH—, and/or —NR 7 —, wherein R 7 is H or C 1 -C 4 -alkyl; or (ii) a polyvinyl alcohol having a weight average molecular weight of at least 500 that, based on the number of hydroxyl groups of the polyvinyl alcohol, comprises (ii-a) from 0.5 to 80% structural units of formula (1); and (ii-b) from 0.1 to 25% structural units of formula (15); where X is —S—, —NH—, —O—, or —OC(O)—; or (iii) of formula (2) B—[—X-[L 1 ] g -(spacer) n -([L 2 ] i -Q) s ] m (2) wherein X is —S—, —NH—, —O—, or —C(O)O—; L 1 and L 2 are linking groups, L 1 being —C(O)— or —C(O)NH—; L 2 being —NH—, —NC 1 -C 6 -alkyl-, —O—, —C(O)—, —OC(O)—, —C(O)O—, —NHC(O)NH—, —NHC(O)O—, —C(O)NH—, —NH(CO)O—, or —OC(O)NH—; Q is a radically polymerizable group, selected from the group consisting of alkenyl, alkenylaryl and alkenyl-arylenealkyl having up to 20 carbon atoms; and (spacer) is linear or branched C 1 -C 300 -alkylene which may be substituted by hydroxyl and/or interrupted by —O— except for methylene, or is C 3 -C 8 -cycloalkylene, C 3 -C 8 -cycloalkylene-C 1 -C 6 -alkylene, C 3 -C 8 -cycloalkylene-C 1 -C 2 -alkylene-C 3 -C 8 -cycloalkylene or C 1 -C 6 -alkylene-C 3 -C 8 -cycloalkylene- C 1 -C 6 -alkylene; g, n and i are each 1 or zero; s is an integer from 1 to 10; and m is an integer from 1 to 20, wherein B is a radical of a bioactive organic compound being a protein, a peptide, an antibody, an enzyme or a fragment of an antibody having terminal or side-chain functionalities; and (b) a second prepolymer which is a polyvinyl alcohol having a weight average molecular weight of at least 2000 that, based on the number of hydroxyl groups of the polyvinyl alcohol, comprises from 0.5 to 80% structural units of formula (1) wherein R is alkylene having up to 8 carbon atoms; R 1 is hydrogen or alkyl having up to seven carbon atoms; and R 2 is —[CO—NH—(R 5 —NH—CO—O)—R 6 —O—]—CO—R 4 ; wherein R 4 is an olefinically unsaturated copolymerizable radical having from 2 to 8 carbon atoms; and R 5 and R 6 are independently lower alkylene having from 2 to 8 carbon atoms, arylene having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, a saturated divalent cycloaliphatic group having from 6 to 10 carbon atoms, arylenealkylene or alkylenearylene having from 7 to 14 carbon atoms or arylenealkylenearylene having from 13 to 16 carbon atoms.