Patent ID: 7223419

Claim:
A process for the production of a polymeric micelle charged therein with a water-scarcely soluble drug, comprising the steps of: (A) dissolving a water-scarcely soluble drug and a block copolymer having a hydrophilic segment and a hydrophobic segment in a water non-miscible organic solvent to prepare an organic solution, wherein the block copolymer is represented by the following Formula (I) or (II) wherein R 1 and R 3 represent a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group; R 2 represents a hydrogen atom, a saturated or unsaturated C 1 to C 29 aliphatic carbonyl group or an arylcarbonyl group; R 4 represents a hydroxyl group, a saturated or unsaturated C 1 to C 30 aliphatic oxy group or an aryl-lower alkyloxy group; L 1 represents a linkage group selected from the group consisting of —NH—, —O— and —OCO—Z—NH— (wherein Z represents a C 1 to C 4 alkylene group); L 2 represents a linkage group selected from —OCO—Z—CO— and —NHCO—Z—CO— (wherein Z represents a C 1 to C 4 alkylene group); n represents an integer of 10 to 2500; x and y may be the same or different and represent integers the total of which is 10 to 300; x to y falls in a range of 7:3 to 1:3, (B) mixing the resulting organic solution with an aqueous medium to form an oil-in-water (O/W) type emulsion, (C) vaporizing and removing the above organic solvent from the resulting emulsion to form a polymeric micelle solution charged therein with die above drug, and (D) subjecting the resulting polymeric micelle solution, if necessary, to supersonic treatment and ultrafiltraton treatment.