Transdermal Drug Delivery System in Veterinary Practice: An Overview

Abstract

In veterinary practice drug delivery strategies are complicated by species diversity, body size variations, cost constraints and level of convenience. A new frontier in the administration of therapeutic drugs to veterinary species is transdermal drug delivery system. It implies topical drug application to achieve systemic pharmacological effects. Its efficacy is primarily dependent upon the barrier properties of the targeted species skin, as well as the ratio of the area of the patch to the species total body mass needed to achieve effective systemic drug concentrations. The candidate drug must have sufficient lipid solubility to be considered for transdermal delivery. The adhesive of the patches is critical to the safety, efficacy and quality of the product. This novel drug delivery system offers many advantages over conventional oral and invasive methods of drug delivery like reduction in hepatic first pass metabolism, enhancement of therapeutic efficiency, maintenance of steady plasma level of the drug and improved owner compliance. With efficient experimental designs and available transdermal patch technology, there are no obvious hurdles for the development of effective therapeutic agents in veterinary practice.