Nanoporous microneedle arrays seamlessly connected to a drug reservoir for tunable transdermal delivery of memantine.

Conventional transdermal drug patches have been on the market since 1997 but their applicability for drug delivery is limited: currently only nearly two dozen of molecules have been approved by the regulatory authorities for transdermal administration and have reached the market. The possibilities for drug delivery via the skin can be improved and expanded by using microneedle patch technologies. However, most microneedle patches focus on the delivery of low amounts of drugs that are generally very potent due to the small dimensions of the microneedle systems.