Healing wounds

Researchers at

have developed a new drug delivery system for treating wounds which overcomes a major hurdle in conventional treatments. The dry wafer system, developed by RGU's School of Pharmacy, will be reported next week at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester.

The freeze-dried wafers are made from polymer gels, which are designed to be applied directly to the surface of suppurating wounds, such as chronic leg ulcers or pressure sores. Once in place, the wafer absorbs fluid from the wound and reverts to being a viscous gel, from which the contained drug can diffuse to the target area.

The dried wafer overcomes a major hurdle with conventional wound treatments. Dr. Kerr Matthews, who is leading the research at RGU's School of Pharmacy explains, "With conventional products, such as gels and creams, it is difficult to apply an exact amount of drug to the wound, especially if there is a high degree of suppuration. In addition, if a gel is diluted by fluid exuding from a wound its viscosity will be reduced and so the gel may run from the target area, taking the therapeutic agent with it."