Biomedical Translational Research Drug Design and Discovery (R.C. Sobti, Naranjan S. Dhalla)

14.4.7.2 Skin Abrasion

This technique is based on the removal or disruption of the upper layers of the skin.

Disruption or removal of the upper layer of the skin leads to an increase in the

permeability of the drug. Microdermabrasion is the technique for superﬁcial skin

resurfacing and is used in the treatment of acne, scars, and hyperpigmentation

(Brown et al. 2006).

14.4.7.3 Needless Injection

It is one of the painless methods for the delivery of the drug into the skin. Several

injectors for liquids (Ped-O-Jet^®, Biojector 2000^®, Dermajet^®, Intraject^®, Medi-

Jector^®, Injex™) and powders (PMED™) have been reported for the delivery of a

drug (lidocaine hydrochloride, testosterone, insulin) into the skin (Brown et al.

2006).

14.5

Market Status and Promises

Markets for dermaceuticals and cosmeceuticals seem to be emerging around the

globe. Changes in the lifestyle are due to the new era of globalization, economy, and

improved technologies. India’s skincare market valued about $180 million (Junaid

and Nasreen 2012). Though traditional and homemade products are used for several

skin-related problems, latest technologies attracted humans more nowadays. Numer-

ous lipodermal cosmeceuticals were in the market and listed in Table 14.4 (Jain et al.

2017).

14.6

Clinical Trials

The burden of skin diseases is increasing worldwide. There are numerous marketed

drugs for topical use, but some hurdles create a lot of challenges for the penetration

of the drug or payloads into the skin through the stratum corneum. Currently, very

few lipodermal formulations are in the clinical trial phases and were listed in

Table 14.5. But, in the future, there is hope for a signiﬁcant requirement of

lipodermaceuticals for targeting different skin diseases with good clinical outcomes.

14.7

Future Prospects

Increase in the topical diseases (dermatitis, psoriasis, scabies, fungal skin diseases,

acne vulgaris, etc.) and the skin care has made the humans rethink for their external

outlook. However, several lipodermal formulations were prepared for skin care.

Still, due to some limitations such as low skin permeability, poor physical and

chemical stability, and high cost of lipids, skin irritations have limited the use of

these formulations. The drugs in the clinical phase might show a positive outcome

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R. K. Paul et al.