European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

APPROACHES TO TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

Ish Grover*, Minakshi Gupta, Balvinder Singh, Manish Devgan

ABSTRACT

The conventional oral dosage forms has major drawbacks of poor bioavailability due to hepatic first pass metabolism and tendency to produce rapid blood level spikes (Both high and low), leading to a requirement for high and/or frequent dosing, which can be both cost prohibitive and inconvenient. To improve such characters transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) was emerged which will improve the therapeutic efficacy and safety of drugs by more precise (i.e. site specific) placement within the body thereby reducing both the size and number of doses. TDDS of drugs through the skin to the systemic circulation provides a convenient route of administration for a variety of clinical indications. For transdermal delivery of drugs, stratum corneum (SC) is the main barrier layer for permeation of drug. The drug which is to be delivered passively via skin should have suitable lipophilicity and a molecular weight <500 Daltons (Da). So to continue away from the stratum corneum and to increase the flux through skin membrane, different approaches of penetration enhancement are used.

Keywords: Bioavailability, Transdermal drug delivery, Stratum corneum, lipophilicity.