Apparatus for the production of drug-containing implants in the form of strings of beads

A kit for making strings of treatment beads comprising:

• a quantity of bone cement;
• a pharmaceutically active substance;
• a strand;
• and
• an apparatus for molding implants containing pharmaceutically active substances within the bone cement said apparatus comprising:
• first and second mold halves each having at least two parallel rows of substantially semi-spherical recesses therein which when opposed form substantially spherical chambers, each substantially spherical chamber having an outer wall portion adjacent to outer walls of the mold halves and interior wall portions disposed generally normal to the outer wall portions;
• first passages through the outer walls of the mold halves and the outer wall portions of the substantially spherical chambers;
• second passages through the interior wall portions of the substantially spherical chambers and in the mold halves for connecting adjacent substantially spherical chambers in series;
• an arrangement for holding the first and second mold halves in abutment with the substantially semispherical recesses aligned so as to form the substantially spherical chambers;
• two outer bodies, each body being disposed outside of the outer walls of the mold halves when the mold halves are in abutment, the body having a space in communication with the first passages wherein said strand is placed in the second passages to extend through the substantially spherical chambers and wherein a mixture of the bone cement and the pharmaceutically active substance are dispensed from the space in the body through the first passages and into the substantially spherical chambers to form the string of treatment beads.