Polymers
AssigneeNovartis AG
InventorsBeat Müller, Alain Laurent, Veerle Coessens, Aaldert Rens Molenberg
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Abstract
The invention relates to novel crosslinkable copolymers which are obtainable by (a) copolymerizing at least one hydrophilic monomer having one ethylenically unsaturated double bond and at least one crosslinker comprising two or more ethylenically unsaturated double bonds in the presence of a chain transfer agent having a functional group; and (b) reacting one or more functional groups of the resulting copolymer with an organic compound having an ethylenically unsaturated group. The crosslinkable copolymers of the invention are especially useful for the manufacture of biomedical mouldings, for example ophthalmic mouldings such as in particular contact lenses.
Claims11
A hydrogel contact lens, comprising a polymer obtained by crosslinking or polymerized a solution of a prepolymer,
- wherein the prepolymer is a reaction product of an organic compound with a copolymer,
- wherein the copolymer includes first reactive groups and is a copolymerization product of a mixture comprising
- (a) at least one hydrophilic monomer having one first ethylenically unsaturated group;
- wherein the hydrophilic monomer is a monomer which, when polymerized, gives a homopolymer which is water-soluble or can absorb at least 10% by weight of water,
- (b) at least one crosslinker comprising two or more second ethylenically unsaturated groups;
- wherein said at least one crosslinker is a polysiloxane, a perfluoroalkyl polyether, or a polysiloxane/perfluoroalkyl polyether block copolymer, and
- (c) a chain transfer agent comprising a chain transfer group and a first reactive group,
- wherein the organic compound comprises a third ethylenically unsaturated group and a second reactive group which reacts with one of the first reactive groups of the copolymer to form a covalent linkage,
- wherein the prepolymer can be crosslinked or polymerized to form a polymeric material capable of forming a hydrogel when contacted with water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.