Patent ID: 7674285

Claim:
A biodegradable polyester-based polyanhydride polymer having, as a repeating polymer unit, a polylactide, polycaprolactone or polyglycolide α-ω,-dianhydride chain having an average molecular weight greater than 5 and less than 10 Kdaltons, and between 8-12 anhydride linkages, where each anhydride linkage links a pair of adjacent repeating polymer units, and said polymer is characterized by: (i) a Young's modulus between 1.5-3 GPa, and (ii) a rate of surface degradation that is effective to fully erode a bar of the polymer having dimensions of 50 microns×50 microns×2 mm, when incubated in phosphate buffered saline at 37° C., within a selected period of 5-365 days.