Testosterone, commonly used for male hypogonadism is available in several forms of passive patches and gels and has been for over two decades. Current passive administration methods though require very large patches, due to the low transport rate of testosterone through the skin. In addition, the use of chemical enhancers (~50% alcohol) to facilitate penetration of the testosterone into the body often causes severe skin irritation. TransPharma Medical’s delivery method has the potential to solve this problem. Specially formulated patches for use with the ViaDerm system provide much higher drug efficacy and safety, resulting in significantly smaller patches, without enhancers. TransPharma's patch solution also has an advantage over newly developed Testosterone gel products, overcoming the problems of dose accuracy and issues of contamination and messiness of rubbing gel over large body areas. Testosterone patches and gels are already FDA-approved products. Therefore, the approval cycle for a ViaDerm drug patch delivery should be rapid, especially since the process involves the removal of irritating chemical enhancers.

In addition, the emergence of new indications for testosterone, including testosterone deficiency in postmenopausal women and of men in andropause, bode well for a rapidly growing market. A sophisticated, testosterone patch will clearly accelerate this process as well.