Robert Ward's distinguished career in the biomaterials field began at Avco Corporation in the 1970s. There, he developed Cardiothane®-610, and was instrumental in advancing Cardiothane®-51, the silicone-modified polyurethane used in the first clinical intra-aortic balloon pump. While employed at Thoratec Laboratories, Ward developed the material now known as Thoralon®, a thromboresistant and biocompatible polymer blend used in the Pierce-Donachy VAD. Using Thoralon materials, he also developed the first clot-resistant small-bore vascular prosthesis to receive IDE approval.

Robert Ward founded The Polymer Technology Group in 1989, a time when product liability concerns were forcing many biomaterials manufacturers to severely restrict the use of their implantable medical plastics or withdraw them from the market altogether. Under Ward's direction, PTG responded to the crisis created from Ethicon's termination of Biomer™, the key material used in a variety of heart-assist devices, by developing BioSpan® segmented polyurethane as a direct replacement. PTG also acquired the license to manufacture Corvita's line of polycarbonate urethanes under the name of Bionate®, which is perhaps the only polyurethane to successfully pass carcinogenicity testing. Recently PTG introduced Elasthane™ polyetherurethane as an alternative to the Dow Chemical Company's Pellethane® 2363 for applications that require implant times greater than 90 days. The U.S. FDA has already accepted two pacemaker leads made from Elasthane.

Since founding PTG, Ward has continued to advance the field of biomaterials with new innovations. In December 1996 he patented Surface-Modifying End Groups (SME™) technology, in which a polyurethane can be tailored during synthesis to yield an alternative surface chemistry (i.e., silicone, sulfonate, PEO, fluorocarbon, or hydrocarbon) without significantly altering the mechanical properties of the base polymer. This technology is currently in use in the world's first prosthetic cervical spinal disk and in a clinical ventricular-assist device. He also patented the first true thermoplastic silicone-polyurethane co-polymers, PurSil® silicone-polyetherurethane and CarboSil® silicone-polycarbonate-urethane, which exhibit the mechanical strength of polyurethanes with many desirable properties of silicone, including in vivo biostability that significantly exceeds silicone-free thermoplastic polyurethanes. Investigations are underway for incorporating these polymers into new medical devices as well as improving existing devices.

CONTACT:
The Polymer Technology Group, Inc.
2810 7th Street
Berkeley, California 94710
Phone: 510-841-8800
Fax: 510-841-7800
http://www.polymertech.com
info@polymertech.com