PENETRATION ENHANCEMENT OF MEDICINAL AGENTS

Many current therapeutic agents like antibiotics, ionizable and peptide drugs are impermeable or do not possess the requisite physicochemical properties for efficient transport through outer tissue barrier to attain therapeutic blood level. For this reason the delivery of such drugs through barriers is currently one of the major interests in pharmaceutical research. Penetration enhancers or promoters are agents that have no therapeutic properties of their own but can transport the sorption of drugs from drug delivery system onto the skin and / or their subsequent transdermal permeation through skin. Numerous harmless and non-toxic penetration-enhancing compounds were found from both natural substances and synthetic products. Penetration enhancers are used to maintain the drug level in blood and to improve the efficacy of drugs.