The founders of RS Therapeutics, Dr. Azarmi and Dr. Loebenberg were looking for an answer to the question: “Why do doctors prescribe high concentrations of diclofenac in different bases”? They noticed concentrations as high as 20% of diclofenac are prescribed in different bases. As trained pharmacists and drug delivery experts, they saw that the science did not match up with the prescribing pattern. If a drug is released from its base and penetrates through the skin it can unfold its pharmacological effect locally. However, the total drug amount administered on one joint of a 20% compounded topical preparation already exceeds the recommended total daily dose. Serious side effects were reported for the commercial formulation containing 1% drug. However, patients were not getting any real pain-relief from the higher concentrations either, and luckily to our best knowledge no serious side effects were reported for compounded preparations with high drug content.
In a research project the drug release from different diclofenac preparations compounded by pharmacies or sold as finished product were compared. The study showed that the drug release from compounding bases and the commercial product were slow. To overcome this problem, a water-based nanotechnology foam which enhances drug release and ultimately skin penetration significantly was developed. The results of this study were published in 2018 (please see publications).
Later a published patient case report showed promising pain-relief when only 2% diclofenac were administered by patients with joint pain (please see publications). This new compounding foam base is now available under the trademark of FoamaDerm®.