World’s First Patch Form of Ibuprofen Paves Way for Transdermal Drug-Delivery

How about a drug in the form of a bandage instead of a thicker pill gulping down your throat? Drug development has emerged as a leading industry in the world and many scientists are putting in rigorous efforts to develop drugs that can be easily delivered inside the patients’ body.Researchers from the University of Warwick along with a Warwick spinout company called Medheran have developed and patented the world’s first ibuprofen patch. The patch can be stuck on the patient’s skin where it delivers the drug directly through the skin to the regions in need of this drug at consistent dose rate.

The patch is made up of a polymer matrix that has been incorporated with significant amounts of ibuprofen which delivers the drug at a steady rate over up to 12 hours. The patch remains highly tacky and the drug load is 5-10 times higher than that of the currently used medical patches and gels.

University of Warwick research chemist Professor David Haddleton said, “There are only a limited number of existing polymers that have the right characteristics to be used for this type of transdermal patches — that will stick to the skin and not leave residues when being easily removed. Furthermore, there are also only a limited number of drugs that will dissolve into these existing polymers. Medherant’s technology now opens up the field of transdermal drug delivery to previously non-compatible drugs.”

Nigel Davis, CEO of Medherant, said, “Our first products will be over-the-counter pain relief patches and through partnering we would expect to have the first of those products on the market in around 2 years. In addition to our pain relief products, our technology also works with drugs in many other therapeutic areas. We can see considerable opportunities in working with pharmaceutical companies to develop innovative products using our next generation transdermal drug-delivery platform.”

Source-Medindia