Patent ID: 8496946

Claim:
A covalently crosslinked hydrogel comprising: three or more divalent poly(alkylene oxide) chains P′ covalently linked at respective first end units to a branched first core group C′; three or more divalent poly(alkylene oxide) chains P″ covalently linked at respective first end units to a branched second core group C″, the chains P″ comprising respective second end units which are covalently linked to between 0% and 100% of respective second end units of chains P′ by divalent linking groups L″; and at least one pendant cationic block copolymer chain A′-B′ which comprises i) a divalent block A′ comprising a poly(alkylene oxide) backbone chain having an end unit covalently linked to a second end unit of one of the chains P′ by a divalent linking group L′, and ii) a monovalent block B′ comprising a first repeat unit, the first repeat unit comprising a backbone carbonate group and a cationic side chain group.