Transdermal delivery of antidiabetic drugs: formulation and delivery strategies.

Most oral antidiabetic drugs exhibit low oral bioavailability and need to be taken more than once daily owing to short half-lives, resulting in poor patient compliance. There is a necessity for improved drug delivery devices for antidiabetic agents because of the scale of their use and short-comings associated with their conventional dosage forms. This review presents an outline of transdermal research specifically in the area of antidiabetic drugs, showing that several transdermal approaches have been made to enhance delivery of these drugs via the skin barrier, significantly improving bioavailability as well as patient compliance.