Biodegradable Materials Application: Experience of the Russian Technological Platform “Medicine of the Future”

Abstract

This paper describes the establishment of the new joint laboratory for medical materials science in Tomsk in the framework of the Technology Platform “Medicine of the Future”. The objective of this paper is to analyze the promising research areas within Medicine and Healthcare in the field of medical materials science. The study has been carried out using patent analysis and the method of critical technologies. The research object is the science and technology thematic area “biodegradable composite materials for medical applications”. According to the analysis of patent databases of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (Russia) and the European Patent Office, the authors have made conclusions concerning the level of inventive activity with regard to “biodegradable composite materials for medical applications”, and determined the common and distinct country features of patent activity in medical materials science. Besides, the authors have suggested a new approach to improving the inventive activity in Russia and abroad, based on the method of critical technologies.

Research Progress of Biodegradable Medical Materials

“…Biodegradation is one of the important properties of biomedical materials, it is important for the application of biomedical materials in the body. So now the main problem we are faced with is how to design a new material with more extensive use according to its mechanical properties and degradation rate [1,3,4,11,13].…”

“…Currently commonly used artificial bone materials for clinical are biological ceramic inorganic materials, such as hydroxyapatite, mostly are prepared by high temperature sintering, the onlooke structure and physical chemical performances are far different from normal bone tissue, which is difficult to degrade after implanted, not conducive to the formation of new bone tissue in transplantation area. Therefore, artificial bone materials become the research focus [10,11].…”