Abstract
Compared with oral and injectable drugs, transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) for systemic delivery has several benefits including sustained blood drug concentration, avoidance of first-pass metabolism, improvement of patient adherence, and reduction of side effects. However, the stratum corneum is a key hurdle in the field of TDDS since it limits delivery of drugs into the body to achieve therapeutic plasma concentrations. A variety of technologies have been developed to overcome the biological barrier: physical enhancers including ultrasound, iontophoresis, and microneedles, chemical enhancers such as liposome and ionic fluid, and biological methods using peptides. In this presentation, I would like to introduce recent progress of these methodologies and a future perspective of TDDS.
