Transdermal patches are developed to deliver drugs systemically and can present for certain disease conditions major advantages over other drug delivery. For several molecules, the transdermal route offers key advantages over oral administration:

• Avoidance of the hepatic first-pass effect leading to better bioavailability and fewer side effects for molecules with low oral bioavailability
• Sustained drug delivery over the application, avoiding potential drug peaks and periods of over and under-dosing, therefore allowing for reduced dosing frequency

In some therapeutic areas and for certain patient populations (such as older patients with multiple medications and patients with swallowing difficulty) self-administered transdermal patches allow to decrease the pill burden and provide longer intervals between doses with an easy administration, leading to increased patient compliance.

Transdermal patches are typically composed of a single or multi-layer polymeric adhesive matrix, one of the layer containing the drug substance dissolved or in suspension in the matrix. This matrix is sandwiched between a backing film and a release liner, the release liner being removed before application and the backing film staying on the patch as a protective support.

AdhexPharma can help you evaluate if your compound is a good candidate for a transdermal application. This will include the review of some key physicochemical characteristics of your molecule and the conduct of initial in vitro and ex vivo permeation studies. This will form the basis of the initial chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) development package.