439h Analysis of Heat-Aided Membrane-Controlled Drug Release

Laurent Simon, Otto H. York Department of Chemical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102

Analytical solutions were developed for the time lag and steady-state transdemal flux of drugs across a heat-aided drug-delivery device. The expressions include thermodynamic and physical properties of the solvent/medicament and membrane system, making the approach amenable to in silico evaluation of process performance in a spreadsheet-like environment. Methods and concepts from classical control theory were applied to predict the onset of the steady-state flux. The strategy employed was based on the system's time constant, computed by taking the inverse of the first eigenvalue of a Sturm-Liouville problem. This framework does not require a solution to the transient heat-enhanced diffusion problem and relaxes the assumption of a constant diffusion coefficient throughout the membrane. The results match published data, partially explain some clinical trial observations, and suggest a novel method to control the plasma drug concentration.