Surface Coating Technologies

Developed originally by CIBA Vision as technology to improve the wettability of contact lens formulations. BioCure believes that the techniques can be adapted for applying hydrophilic, biocompatible coatings to catheters, stents, vascular grafts, and other medical devices, and can be adapted for delivery of active agents.

The coating technologies are of three types: 1) plasma chemistry; 2) photoreactive, "wet" chemistry; and electrostatic self-assembly or layer-by-layer (LBL).

The plasma technology includes an "after glow" process, where the substrate is kept out of the active plasma zone during plasma-induced polymerization of a polymerizable unsaturated compound (monomer) on the substrate. The substrate can be reactive, such as an isocyanate, epoxide, or azlactone. The photoreactive chemistry involves the use of isocyanate terminated photoinitiators, which can be used to attach hydrophilic monomers.

LBL is a method involving alternately coating a polycationic material and a polyanionic material to achieve a multi-layer coating on the surface. An active agent can be attached. BioCure has preliminary results showing attachment of heparin to metal.

Please contact us if you have any questions. We'd be happy to provide you with more information.