Bio-based polymers find a home in medicine

A new report says that despite their limitations, the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors could put bio-based polymers to good use.

Pure PHA (polyhydroxyalcanoates), like pure PLA, suffers from poor structural strength. But PHA’s biodegradability and low- to non-existent toxicity opens up many potential applications within the medical and pharmaceutical industries, such as sutures, bone plates, grafts and a wide variety of implants.

PBS has properties comparable to incumbent polypropylene but costs twice as much. Still, it has important applications in the medical industry because it presents better processability and toxicity than PLA, and exhibits mechanical properties comparable to polypropylene and PE.

The report, titled “Comparing the Performance and Addressable Markets for Bio-based polymers,” is part of the Lux Research Bio-based Materials and Chemicals Intelligence service.