It is anticipated that the transdermal/transmucosal drug
delivery market will continue to grow beyond the smoking cessation technology that first brought them to the marketplace, according to Kalorama Information's just-published report on this topic. The market for drugs that use technologies to deliver therapeutics through the skin is expected to be driven by various factors including the loss of
patent protection for blockbuster drugs and the need to avoid the first pass
effects of oral drug delivery.
Additionally, with an added focus on
active transdermal technologies, new applications will likely cause a
resurgence of interest in transdermal delivery of products. Recent advances in
biotechnology and molecular biology have resulted in a large number of novel
molecules with the potential to revolutionize the treatment and prevention of
disease. However, such potential is severely compromised by significant
obstacles to delivery these drugs into the body. These obstacles mean that drug
delivery and targeting is now recognized as the key to effective development of
many therapeutics. Transdermal and transmucosal drug delivery systems continue
to gain market acceptance as a preferred method of administration.
Interest in
transdermal/transmucosal drug delivery dropped until the early 1970s. In 1981
the first dermal patches, Transderm-Scop for scopolamine (ALZA) and the
Transderm-Nitro (ALZA), were launched on the market. Nitro-Dur (Key) and
Nitro-Disc (Searle) followed in 1982, and in 1985, Boehringer Ingelheim
released Catapress-TTS for clonidine, using ALZA’s drug delivery technology.
This spurred a number of transdermal product offerings including:: Estraderm (CIBA) for estradiol, Duragesic (Janssen) for fentanyl, Testoderm (ALZA) for testosterone, Minitran (3M) for nitroglycerin.
These products and more are covered in The World Market for Transdermal Drugs, from Kalorama Information.
