ATDs are a class of alternative cream and lotions, based on Polyaphron Dispersion Science, which can be rubbed onto or into skin on any part of the body. Their primary use is to carry drugs into and through the skin epidermis in an efficient manner. Typically, topical drug formulations made using ATD technology show improved rates of flux of active through human skin compared with conventional, commercially available emulsion, gel or ointment products.

In laboratory experiments, the amount of drug passing through skin during a 12 or 24 hour period is typically 3 fold to 20 fold that obtained from conventional products under the same conditions. The graph above illustrates the enhancing effect of ATD technology on hydrocortisone acetate creams. As the figure clearly shows, the ATD product gave an equivalent cumulative flux compared to a brand-leading emulsion benchmark product (‘Emulsion’) but with only one twentieth of the concentration of active.  Other examples are available on request.

Besides enhanced skin permeation, ATD products offer low potential skin irritation (because of very low levels of surfactants), better skin ‘feel’ (leading to better patient compliance), more effective manufacture at ambient temperatures (providing speedy manufacture with low risk of temperature damage to vulnerable drugs). ATD products can be made using conventional, pharmaceutically-approved materials. Because ATD is more flexible than conventional emulsions and can make better use of ‘difficult’ raw materials (such as silicones and alcohol), ATD can be used to solve otherwise intractable formulation problems, such as how to combine two drugs that are mutually incompatible in emulsions, or combinations of emollients with high levels of alcohol.