Microneedles: Recent advances and development in the field of transdermal drug delivery technology

Abstract

Microneedles have emerged as a novel therapeutic modality in transdermal drug delivery system. The concept of microneedle has caught attention of the investigators owing to its immense utilities and unique promising features of painless drug delivery by crossing the impervious barrier layer of stratum corneum of skin efficiently in a non-invasive manner. It provides excellent therapeutic potency and bioavailability of drugs compared to most other conventional drug delivery routes. Microneedles have supremacy on avoidance of pre-systemic first pass metabolism of administered drugs, better patient compliance and avoidance of gastric irritation which outweighs the adherence of other conventional drug delivery system. As a trendy approach in the pharmaceutical and biomedical field, its applications are constantly evolving due to its ability to deliver large molecules with ionic and hydrophilic nature along with delivery of other products like insulin, vaccine, vitamins, peptides, oligonucleotides etc. The review provides an insight on recent advances of microneedles by emphasizing on various types, fabrication techniques, fabrication materials and various pharmaceutical and biomedical applications of microneedles along with some approved marketed microneedle products.
 Keywords: Microneedles, types, fabrication techniques, commercial products