MICRONEEDLES Offer Painless Delivery.

• Position: The use of microneedles will revolutionize the system of drug delivery - Brief Article

Microneedles much thinner than the diameter of a human hair could be the basis for a new drug delivery technique able to administer small quantities of high-potency medications through the skin without causing pain. Arrays of the microneedles could improve administration of existing medications, allow development of new therapeutic compounds, and open the door for microprocessor-based systems for delivering drugs continuously or in response to body needs. Produced with fabrication techniques originally developed for the microelectronics industry, the tiny needles can avoid causing pain because they penetrate only the outermost layer of skin that contains no nerve endings.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Atlanta. believe their microneedles would be especially useful with large protein-based molecules, such as those produced through new biotechnology processes. Such drugs often cannot be taken orally, but must be administered frequently enough to make traditional needle injection impractical or unpleasant.

"We envision microneedles being `user-friendly' for patients, similar to the current transdermal patches that are in common use." explains Mark R. Prausnitz, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical Engineering. "We expect in its final design that a microneedle array would be quite easy to use. Patients would just peel a liner off and stick the array onto the skin. They would not see any needles, and there should be no pain associated with it."

The first use for the microneedle arrays would be for one-time injections. However, Prausnitz believes the...