Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a low-cost contraceptive patch for women that uses microneedles and allows the user to wear it for seconds and get a dose that lasts for a month.
When the patch is applied for several seconds, microscopic needles break off on the surface of the skin and administer the contraceptive drug levonorgestrel over a period of time, according to a study published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal “Nature Biomedical Engineering”.
Researchers said they expect the patches, which are at least a few years away from being available to consumers, could be mass-produced for US$1 each.
“Our goal is for women to be able to self-administer long-acting contraceptives with the microneedle patch that would be applied to the skin for five seconds just once a month,” the study’s author Mark Prausnitz, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said in a statement.
Unlike some contraceptive patches on the market that require the user to wear them continuously, the new patch’s backing can be discarded once the microscopic needles break off into the skin, researchers said.
In early testing of the patches on rats, the study found that the patch – which contained 100 microneedles – was able to deliver a therapeutic amount of the drug for more than a month with one application.
In an interview, Prausnitz said that the goal of initial tests was to determine whether the patch could deliver levonorgestrel at the right levels in the rats’ bloodstream.
Prausnitz said it could take about five years before this patch is available to the public. Researchers say more testing is required to make sure the patches will work effectively on humans. They also said they hope to create a patch that could be applied every six months.
“It’s difficult for a woman in some scenarios to go to a health care professional and have a long-acting contraceptive administered,” said Prausnitz.
“If you could have this combination of a long-acting plus something that can be self-administered, that should be really attractive in many cases.”
