Patent ID: 8747883

Claim:
A solid, non-porous composite comprised of: a) a) a non-biodegradable thermoplastic polymer material melt-processable at a temperature not exceeding 260° C., said polymer material suitable for implantation in a living mammal, a 1.6 mm thick disk of said polymer material having less than about one percent by weight dissolution in distilled water at 35° C. in 30 days; said thermoplastic polymer material being comprised of a melt blend of: (i) an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having a melt index less than about 50 g/10 min. as measured by ASTM D1238 and comprising 10 to 50 percent by weight of vinyl acetate, (ii) polyethylene glycol having a weight average molecular weight of tom about 2,000 to about 20,000 Daltons; and b) one or more bioactive agents comprising at least ciprofloxacin antibiotic dispersed uniformly throughout said polymer material; said bioactive agents comprising about 1 to about 60 percent by weight of said polymer plus bioactive agents; wherein at least one said bioactive agent has less than about 5 percent weight loss at a temperature of 200° C. when measured in a pure state by thermogravimetric analysis at a heating rate of 10° C./min; and, wherein said ciprofloxacin is present in said polymer material as: i) a solid solution phase with said polymer material comprised of from about 0.1 to about 30 percent by weight of said ciprofloxacin; and ii) a solid solution phase with said polymer material comprised of from about 95 to about 99.99 percent by weight of said ciprofloxacin; and iii) a phase selected from a supersaturated solution, essentially pure, ciprofloxacin, a solid solution comprised of, ciprofloxacin and their combination.