Development of Dual Drugs with Coated Microneedles
Abstract
Coated microneedles have been shown to deliver biopharmaceuticals and drugs into the skin in a minimally invasive manner. To increase patient acceptance, smaller needle diameters and lower insertion forces have been investigated to reduce the frequency of painful injections. Guided by these, microneedles have been developed to minimize pain and are more useful for vaccine administration. This research was to develop a process for coating two different drugs with microneedles, make uniform coatings, and establish that the mass ratio of the components in the coating solution is maintained when measured in microneedles. The results shows that the drugs when in a pure state and with high concentration the absorbance tends to be higher but the absorbance decreases proportionally with the concentration of each substance when the drugs are mixed in different concentrations. When using the coating solution at different concentrations, absorbance varied but the mass ratio remained the same. Key Terms⎯ Coating solution, Dip-coated method, Microneedles, Ratio