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Shared privately with a short list of clinical partners. No passcode? Email te@ketroskin.com.
The aversion is real and durable. Patients weigh GI risk, opioid stigma, and the medications they’re already taking before they reach for another oral one. Most would rather not reach at all.
Topical is the answer they already want. The question is whether it’s strong enough to do the work.
If pain stays local,
why should the medication
go everywhere?
Topical NSAIDs deliver therapeutic concentration at the site of pain. The rest of the body doesn’t have to absorb the dose.
Applied where it hurts. Absorbed into the tissue. A fraction of the systemic exposure of an oral dose — same NSAID mechanism, concentrated at the painful site.
Ketorolac absorbs transdermally at the application site, reaching synovial fluid and muscle at therapeutic concentrations.
Standard NSAID mechanism, localized. The anti-inflammatory effect concentrates at the painful tissue instead of traveling through the body.
Topical NSAIDs deliver less than 15% of the plasma exposure of an oral dose, and as low as 0.4–2.2% for diclofenac in published PK studies. The liver and GI tract are largely bypassed.
Every other option asks the patient to swallow something, carries opioid stigma, or isn’t strong enough for moderate pain. Topical ketorolac is the only one that avoids all three.
| Option | Oral Burden | GI / Systemic Risk | Opioid Stigma | Strength for Real Pain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acetaminophen | Pill | Hepatic load | None | Limited for inflammatory pain |
| Oral NSAIDs | Pill | High GI / CV / renal | None | Effective |
| Opioids | Pill | CNS / dependency | High | Effective, with dependence risk |
| OTC topicals (Voltaren, etc.) | None | Low | None | Underdosed for moderate pain |
| Heat / ice / TENS | None | None | None | Symptomatic comfort only |
| Topical Ketorolac (Ketro) | None | Minimal — localized | None | Prescription-strength |
Prescription-strength topical ketorolac, compounded by a US pharmacy, dispensed through a closed-loop async Rx pathway. Skincare-formulated: fast-absorbing, non-greasy, fragrance-controlled. Built for daily use.
The same NSAID used in hospitals, in a gel you apply at home.
AAOS gives topical NSAIDs a Strong recommendation for knee osteoarthritis (2021 OAK3 guideline). ACP and AAFP name them first-line therapy for acute non–low back musculoskeletal injuries, with an explicit recommendation against opioids except in severe cases (2020).
Professional athletes can’t take an oral NSAID across 162 games. The GI risk, the renal load, the cardiovascular footprint — none of it is compatible with playing every day.
They needed prescription-strength relief they could apply directly. Ketro is that formulation, made available outside the clubhouse.
The formulation pros use
to keep moving.
Now built for the people
you serve.
Same active ingredient. Same formulation. Available through a structured Rx pathway built to integrate cleanly into an existing care program.
Members access Ketro through a co-branded landing page at preferential pricing. No clinical integration. The lowest-lift starting point, built for the evaluation phase.
Topical NSAIDs woven into member education and care-team recommendations. Co-branded clinical content, standard Rx pathway.
Formal inclusion in the program: onboarding kits, flare-event triggers, two-way outcome data, joint clinical case studies.
Recommended starting point: a structured 90-day clinical pilot — 100 members, product at COGS, joint outcome analysis. Detail in the accompanying Pilot Proposal.
Not a deal. Not procurement. A conversation between clinicians and a founder about whether the thesis of this brief fits your program.
te@ketroskin.com
Clinical oversight and content review