Assessing the skin pharmacokinetics of topical drugs using Raman spectroscopic tools

Our research aims to demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy and imaging can provide a non-invasive, sensitive, and reproducible determination of the rate and extent at which a topically administered drug becomes available at its site of action in the skin. A key objective is to establish experimental methods, combining Raman spectroscopic tools with complementary calibration techniques and mathematical modelling, to prove this hypothesis ex vivo. The ultimate goal is to provide evidence that the routine, facile and non-invasive measurement of drug pharmacokinetics in the skin in vivo is achievable and has considerable potential for application in regulatory science and decision-making.