The present invention provides improved stents and other prostheses for
delivering substances to vascular and other luminal and intracorporeal
enviroments. In particular, the present invention provides luminal
prostheses which allow for a programmed and controlled substance delivery
protocols for a variety of purposes. The prostheses comprise a scaffold
which is implantable within a body lumen and a substance reservoir
present over at least a portion of the scaffold. Usually, a
rate-controlling element will be formed over the substance-containing
reservoir to provide for a number of different substance release
characteristics.