Petrolatum based formulations (ointments) have many advantages for topical delivery of APIs, such as, e.g., formation of occlusive coating, emollient properties. These are particularly desirable for products intended for treatment of bacterial and fungal infection, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and wound dressing.
In addition, based on countless skin absorption studies of ointments conducted at Zyleris, it seems that standard deviations of skin absorption from ointments are narrower than creams, gels, and lotions, even solutions regardless the API is solubilized in the dosage form or not.
However, due to highly viscous and lipophilic nature of petrolatum, release of the APIs from the petrolatum based ointments is generally slow, thereby hindering their therapeutic efficacies. Hindrance is particularly severe for the APIs that are water-miscible or hydrophilic.
Zyleris has developed a patented technology that can dramatically increase release of APIs from ointments by adding a synergistic mixture of two ingredients found in U.S. FDA Inactive Ingredients database. The release enhancement factor can be as high as 50 times greater.
Zyleris also has developed a proprietary technology that can systematically modulate release of APIs from the ointments.