Investigation of the Stabilization of Supersaturated Drug-in-adhesive Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems

Transdermal drug delivery systems have become an attractive drug delivery method due to various advantages. Diffusion of drug through the epidermis is often limited by the stratum corneum, which acts as a diffusion barrier. Therefore, permeation enhancement strategies are often applied to improve the resulting systemic bioavailability. Supersaturation is an attractive enhancement approach since it does not compromise the integrity of the stratum corneum. However, supersaturated systems are metastable which may result in reduced diffusional driving force and bioavailability due to spontaneous crystallization. Stabilization of such systems using additives is crucial to avoid reduced product performance. Various additives were evaluated and identified for their suitability to sufficiently inhibit crystallization in our systems. Dissolution testing revealed that patches exhibit different release mechanisms depending on the adhesive selected. Finally, mathematical modeling was applied to analyze the data and gain further understanding of the mechanisms governing drug release from our systems.M.Sc.2021-03-21 00:00:0