Abstract

NEWER TRENDS IN FILM FORMING SYSTEMS FOR TOPICAL AND TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY

Anuroop U. P.*, Sruthy S. Nair and Ajith Babu T. K.

Abstract

Skin is one of the important routes of drug administration. There is a variety of dosage forms are available now a day’s such as transdermal patches, creams, ointments and implants. The drugs are absorbed through the skin based on the different physicochemical properties of the drug and other ingredients. Conventional formulations for topical administration of drugs have certain limitations like poor adherence to skin, poor permeability and compromised patient compliance. For the treatment of wounds, burns and other skin diseases the drug has to be maintained at the site of treatment for an effective period of time. Topical film forming systems are such developing drug delivery systems meant for topical application to the skin, which adhere to the body, forming a thin transparent film and provide delivery of the active ingredients to the body tissue. These are developed for skin application as emollient or protective and for local action or transdermal penetration of medicament for systemic applications. The transparency is an appreciable feature of this polymeric system which greatly influences the patient acceptance. In this review, the film forming systems are referred as a promising choice for topical and transdermal drug delivery. The various formulation available, various film forming agents, advantages and evaluation of transdermal drug delivery systems have also been reviewed.

Keywords: Polymers, Transdermal Drug delivery, Film forming agents.