Fabrication of Microneedles Array Patch for The Transdermal Delivery of Apixaban; a Covid-19 Patients Saver Anticoagulant.

Summary

Apixaban (APX) is an FDA approved potent anticoagulant drug belonging to the class of Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs). It has numerous indications for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases.  It also shows a great role in the management of one of the extremely serious Covid-19 complications; blood clotting. Tablets are the only available dosage form for APX, however, with an oral bioavailability of APX confined to 50%. In addition, these tablets are not convenient for hospitalized or unconscious patients.

In this project, our aim is to transdermally deliver APX to increase its bioavailability and improve patient compliance using the microneedles (MNs) array technique.

The sequence of the work will be primarily to fabricate plain MNs, followed by their characterization by means of morphology and mechanical strength.

Consequently,  the APX-loaded MNs will be fabricated using different polymers for comparison, followed by their characterization in terms of morphology and mechanical strength (like plain MNs), in addition to, drug content, MNs dissolution kinetics, differential scanning calorimetry analysis, X-ray diffraction measurements, in-vitro determination of skin penetration and ex-vivo skin permeation study.  Finally, pharmacokinetic studies will be performed on rats to assess the in-vivo efficiency of APX-loaded MNs patch.

Achievements

List of Publications from the Project

Partners

Project Members

Project Leaders

• Hanaa Adel Abdel-Messih