Dissolving microarray patches loaded with rosuvastatin calcium : A potential transdermal drug delivery device

Yaocun Li – Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast; Ryan Donnelly – Professor, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast

Introduction:

Epidemiological data indicate that dyslipidemia contributes to more than one-third of ischemic heart disease cases worldwide, underscoring its critical role in global cardiovascular mortality (Ballena-Caicedo et al., 2025). One of the available medications is oral rosuvastatin calcium (ROSCa) tablets. While effective, it undergoes substantial first-pass metabolism, leading to a bioavailability of ~20% (Alshora et al., 2016). Therefore, we proposed the concept of using microarray patches (MAPs), which can bypass the gastrointestinal pathway, to transdermally deliver ROSCa as an alternative to the oral formulation (Donnelly et al., 2012; Naser et al., 2024).