Recent Trends in Transdermal Drug Delivery System - A Review

Transdermal drug delivery systems have evolved as a successful alternative to systemic drug delivery. Despite their relatively higher costs, transdermal delivery systems have proved advantageous for delivery of selected drugs, such as estrogens, testosterone, clonidine and nitro-glycerine. Transdermal delivery provides a leading edge over injectable and oral routes by increasing patient compliance and avoiding first pass metabolism respectively. The technique is generally non-invasive well accepted by patients and can be used to provide local delivery over several days. Recently there has been an increasing awareness that the benefits of intravenous drug infusion can be closely duplicated, without its potential hazards, by continuous transdermal drug administration through Skin. For both local and systemic effects skin is the major site of application. However, to penetrate the drug through skin, stratum corneum is the main barrier.