Coating materials for pharmaceutical dosage forms contain, besides the conventional liquid or solid additives for pharmaceutical coatings, a binder comprising a synthetic polymer, prepared by emulsion polymerization, having 5 to 100% by weight of units derived from monomers of the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group, R.sub.2 is an alkylene or aralkylene group having at least 3 carbon atoms in the chain between the amino nitrogen and the ester oxygen atom of which at least one is tertiary or quaternary, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are lower alkyl radicals or together with the amino-nitrogen atom form a heteroaliphatic ring, and, optionally, additional comonomer units.