How do ingredient-in-adhesive patches work?  How do the active ingredients get from the adhesive matrix into you?

Your best analogy is that of a snowglobe.

Shake a snowglobe up until all the snow is flying around in the globe.   Freeze it in that moment.    The snow represents your active ingredients, and the water in the globe represents the adhesive matrix.   The bits of snow that are touching the surface of the globe are the bits of ingredients that are touching your skin.   These bits are the only percentage of the active ingredients that will ever touch – or affect – your skin.  The rest are forever encased in the adhesive.

The adhesive is important.  That adhesive gives the patch its ability to stick to your skin even through a shower.   Mixing the adhesive and the ingredients gives us a finalized patch that is flat, discreet, and easy to brand.   Monolithic patches are by far our most popular option.

Customer education is important, and it is important to explain why monolithic patches last for less time than pad patches.   Your body has access to only the active ingredients that touch it.   When we mix those active ingredients into an adhesive matrix, there is less skin contact.   Micrograms out of milligrams are available.    The difference in pad and monolithic patches go more than just skin deep.

Do monolithic patches work?   Yes.   There are many proven ingredient-in-adhesive medical patches on the marketplace, such as nicotine or birth control patches.    As we tell our customers, monolithic and pad patches are suitable for very different applications – it’s not merely price and aesthetics that set them apart.