Transdermal medicated adhesive patches

The capacity of the skin to absorb lipid-soluble chemicals is both a blessing and a curse. Transdermal medicated adhesive patches, for example, take advantage of the capacity of the skin to absorb small lipophilic compounds in order to administer chemicals such as scopolamine, the anti-sea sickness drug, and nicotine. Unfortunately, urushiol, the active ingredient found in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac, also takes advantage of the skin s capacity to absorb small, lipophilic chemicals, and is absorbed via the dermal pathway. 

Nitto Denko Corporation primarily manufactures industrial adhesive tapes for the electronics, automotive, health care, packaging and construction industries. The company produces industrial, electronic and functional products. Industrial products include double-coated adhesive tapes, masking tapes surface protective materials, sealing materials and label printing systems. Electronics products include LCD-related items general and advanced device resins printed circuit boards and semiconductor package adhesive sheets. Functional products include medical items such as transdermal therapeutic patches polymer separation membranes used for water purification and treatment and plastic engineering products such as information equipment and porous film materials used in cars, electronics, and home appliances. Nitto Denko America, Inc., an optoelectronics subsidiary, manufactures semiconductor... 

Transdermal drug-delivery systems offer several important adventages over more traditional approaches, in addition to the benefits of avoiding the hepatic first-pass effect. Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) are usually in the form of patches incorporating pressure sensitive adhesives. There are two basic designs for transdermal patches matrix or reservoir type. Matrix-type patches include monolithic adhesive and polymer matrices, whereas reservoir-type patches include liquid and solid-state reservoirs [71-73]. For various types of transdermal delivery systems, medical grade adhesive silicones are used as [73,74] ... 

Although medical devices are a multibillion dollar industry, the overall volume of adhesives used is quite low. For example, the worldwide market for cyanoacrylates in bonding catheters is only a few hundred kilos. The transdermal patch market is about 1.6 billion, but adhesives only account for 2 million of this figure. 

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