Medicated Patch for Migraines Uses Electricity to Push Drug Through Skin
For medicines that do not go down well in pill form, administering drugs via transdermal patches is nothing new. Patches are currently on the market for nicotine replacement, birth control, and even pain relief. But many drugs, such as an effective migraine medication called sumatriptan, do not pass easily from a patch into the skin. Drug company NuPathe has a solution: at the press of a button, an electric current running through the patch gently prods the meds into your body. For the one-third of migraine sufferers who experience nausea or vomiting, relief via oral meds can be troublesome. Sometimes not enough of the drug is absorbed, or the quick-acting pills cause unwanted side effects such as esophagus contractions and panic, CEO Jane Hollingsworth told Popsci.com. NuPathe's patch, called Zelrix, steadily releases the pharmaceuticals into the bloodstream. "We can control the levels exactly, so...