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Ibuprofen is known as a popular OTC pain reliever for various ailments–headaches, mild arthritis, muscle pain–which is often administered as a pill, leading sometimes to stomach issues in patients. But a group of researchers had a different approach and now claim that you can enjoy 12 pain-free hours with new ibuprofen skin patch.
Academics at the University of Warwick, in U.K., recently announced that they now have an analgesic skin patch that can deliver pain relief to any area of the body through a high dose of the drug. The team said that their patch, which is the result of cooperation with the bio-adhesive firm Medherant, is the first to contain ibuprofen as a pain reliever.
Currently, in drug stores we can find Ibuprofen-based gels, which work in a similar way, but researchers say that their patch is more concentrated and can deliver pain relief in a more convenient way.
They explained that their patch is made of an ibuprofen-laden polymer matrix, which can stick onto skin and better deliver the drug to certain areas of the body than traditional pills or even gels.
Researchers unveiled the new skin patch Tuesday, when they pledged that the patch can keep patients pain-free for up to 12 hours. The drug concentration of the patch is 30 percent, study authors noted, which is five to 10 times more powerful than similar patches or pills on the market.
Moreover, British scientists said that the patch won’t look unpleasant on the skin since it was specially designed to be ‘cosmetically pleasant.’
Medherant’s chief executive Nigel Davis views the new analgesic patch as the future of transdermal pain relievers. He recently said that the patch could help pharma groups improve their pain relief medications, but further investigation is required. The new patch may even help patients, whose stomachs get easily upset from ibuprofen and other oral pain pills, stay pain-free without the side-effects.
Ibuprofen patches should be perfect pain relievers for localized pain such as muscle or joint pain. Medherant currently plans to perform future trials and gain FDA approval as an OTC pain-relief device in two years’ time.
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