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Drug Delivery Through Microneedles

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Microsystems for Pharmatechnology

Abstract

Drug delivery through microneedles is a new form of a pharmaceutical dosage system. While single microneedles have been clinically applied already, the out-of-plane integration of a multitude of microneedles in a pharmaceutical patch is a disruptive technology. To take advantage of micro- and nanofluidics, such active patches utilize microneedle array (MNA) technology. MNAs are microsystems that adopt their technical uniqueness by the choice of a fabrication technology. MNAs can be made of solid, hollow, porous, or dissolvable materials in a cost-effective manner by the so-called MEMS technology. However, key to their success will be a proof-of-concept in the clinic, which must demonstrate that the intradermal (nano)release of drugs and vaccines serve an unmet medical need. In this chapter, we discuss recently established MNA platform technologies and by means of a case study we assess novel opportunities for MNAs in drug and vaccine delivery arising from this novel skin interface.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Microsystems Group and ICMS Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, 5612 AZ, The Netherlands

    R. Luttge

  2. MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente and MyLife Technologies BV, Enschede, 7500 AE, The Netherlands

    R. Luttge

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  1. R. Luttge
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Correspondence to R. Luttge .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microtechnology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Andreas Dietzel

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Luttge, R. (2016). Drug Delivery Through Microneedles. In: Dietzel, A. (eds) Microsystems for Pharmatechnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26920-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26920-7_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26918-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26920-7

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