Drug delivery through microneedles

Drug delivery through microneedles is a new form of a pharmaceutical dosage system. While single microneedles have been clinically applied already, the out-of-plane integration of a multitude of microneedles in a pharmaceutical patch is a disruptive technology. To take advantage of micro- and nanofluidics, such active patches utilize microneedle array (MNA) technology. MNAs are microsystems that adopt their technical uniqueness by the choice of a fabrication technology. MNAs can be made of solid, hollow, porous, or dissolvable materials in a cost-effective manner by the so-called MEMS technology. However, key to their success will be a proof-of-concept in the clinic, which must demonstrate that the intradermal (nano)release of drugs and vaccines serve an unmet medical need. In this chapter, we discuss recently established MNA platform technologies and by means of a case study we assess novel opportunities for MNAs in drug and vaccine delivery arising from this novel skin interface