Topical and Transdermal Studies
Topical and Transdermal Clinical Development—Our Experience Supports Your Goals
Your topical or transdermal drug needs rapid, reliable clinical data to progress confidently. Altasciences has over three decades of experience, supporting the development of nearly all marketed products in this space, including narcotics, CNS agents, hormones, addiction therapies, and analgesics. We use this expertise to help you navigate challenges quickly and effectively.
We generate early clinical insights in both healthy and patient populations to guide the successful development of your topical or transdermal therapy. Through strategic planning, high-quality study conduct, and reliable, timely data delivery, we accelerate the translational element to create value from the start to facilitate funding and strategic development.
Consult our Topical and Transdermal Fact Sheet
Consult our Special and Patient Populations Fact Sheet
Study Start-Up—Get Your Topical and Transdermal Studies Up and Running, Fast
Facing tight timelines for your topical or transdermal therapy? Our rapid start-up capabilities and deep expertise help keep your development on track without compromising quality.
We mobilize quickly—starting trials in as little as 4 weeks. Our approach includes effective communication, strategic planning, and a dual project management structure, ensuring seamless alignment between our internal teams and the sponsor. This facilitates prompt decision-making and rapid issue resolution for seamless, comprehensive topical and transdermal clinical trials.
By streamlining contract execution, regulatory document preparation, and participant recruitment, Altasciences demonstrates a commitment to efficiency and timely topical and transdermal clinical trial results. Our strong project management, combined with a dedicated internal team and collaborative relationships with sponsors, we can significantly reduce start-up timelines.
With three clinical pharmacology units and co-located bioanalytical laboratories in the U.S. and Canada, we provide dual regulatory pathways—Investigational New Drug (IND) and Clinical Trial Application (CTA) for Canada. Our focus on efficiency ensures rapid start-up and streamlined timelines for your clinical trial.
Excellence in Recruitment for Topical and Transdermal Studies
We excel in recruiting participants for topical and transdermal clinical trials. With a large pool of over 400,000 healthy normal volunteers, patients, and special populations, we rapidly recruit and enroll participants. We have partnerships with hospitals for patient recruitment and have partnered with independent investigational sites to further enhance our recruitment efforts for topical and transdermal studies. Our recruitment strategies and database ensure we meet enrollment targets swiftly, so your study progresses without delays.
Key Advantages of Our Recruitment Strategy
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Our dedicated recruitment team and streamlined processes ensure a quick turnaround from protocol approval to participant enrollment, ensuring your topical and transdermal studies meet key milestones. |
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Our well-established databases allow us to pre-identify study participants and perform targeted outreach. With access to many demographics, ethnicities, special populations, and patients, we can predict recruitment timelines efficiently. |
Our efficient approach to recruitment uses innovative strategies and a large participant pool. This ensures your topical and transdermal trial quickly meets enrollment targets, retains participants, and maximizes data integrity.
Turnkey Solutions for Topical and Transdermal Studies
We save you time and simplify the process with a turnkey solution for conducting topical and transdermal studies in healthy participants, handling every aspect of your trial from start to finish.

Protocol review/writing:
Whether starting de novo or refining an existing protocol, we streamline the process to support informed decision-making and meet critical study milestones.
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Clinical conduct:
Our three state-of-the-art clinics across North America are fully equipped to run your topical and transdermal studies, with expert teams managing dosing and sampling, and ensuring proper adhesion and tracking of any AE-associated irritation and sensitization measurements.
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CRA/Clinical monitoring:
Real-time tracking of pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data, safety assessments, and adverse event reporting, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and maintaining data integrity throughout the trial.
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Bioanalytical services:
Our state-of-the-art, co-located bioanalytical labs are equipped with a wide range of methods and assays, ensuring precise and timely PK data, biomarkers of inflammation, and others, as appropriate. Leveraging these established methods, we provide the reliable data you need to meet regulatory standards, enabling faster decision-making and comprehensive label information.
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Consult our Validated Assay List

Data Services and Reporting:
We handle data management , biostatistics, and comprehensive reporting to deliver timely, high-quality results.
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Regulatory Consulting:
Our regulatory experts can assist with a detailed plan for your preliminary early-phase studies.
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We’re fully equipped to ensure your topical and transdermal studies are completely and quickly enrolled; your clinical trials are performed efficiently; and your data is delivered on time. In addition, we provide integrated formulation development, preclinical studies, and early-phase clinical research, all supported by co-located bioanalytical laboratories.
Topical and Transdermal Studies—Case Studies and Resources
FAQ
What are some of the key irritation and sensitization assessments Altasciences performs for topical and transdermal clinical trials?
We conduct adhesion and irritation/sensitization evaluation, visually and by photograph using:
- highly experienced visual readers with routine cross-validation of consistency
- high-precision adhesion assessment process
- proprietary tools and ImageJ software to enhance the adhesion analysis
What kind of study parameters does Altasciences have experience with?
Our experience includes, but is not limited to:
- PK/PD dermal devices/implants
- Adhesion
- Irritation and sensitization (HRIPT)
- Intranasal vasoconstriction
- Franz diffusion cell in vitro skin permeation
- Allergy testing
- Topical pain models, including cold pressor test (CPT) and electronic von Frey
- Iontophoresis (with lidocaine for pain)
- Microarray