Clearing the Nose, Easing the Pain

The U.K.'s Cambridge Consultants is developing a next generation liquid drug delivery system that's breath-actuated, bi-directional and multi-dose for Norway's OptiNose. Work is using OptiNose's present nasal delivery technology that delivers drugs to sites within the nose that standard nasal sprays don't reach while preventing deposition of drugs in the lungs.

Uses for the new delivery system are for patients suffering from rhinosinusitis - estimated at 37 million in the U.S. and a similar number in Europe. Among other conditions for which it may be used are Parkinson's disease and sexual dysfunction.

Cambridge Consultants describes the workings of the new device. Exploiting the body's natural reflex that isolates the nasal circuit from the lungs during exhalation against a resistance, as the patient breaths into the device, exhaled air actuates delivery. The exhaled airflow carries spray droplets into the nose and its posterior nasal passage beyond the nasal valve, placing active drugs in the region of the sinus. Simultaneously, breathing out automatically closes the nasal cavity which removes the risk of drug distribution into the lungs.

The delivery system under development will carry as many as 120 doses in one device. It's targeted to begin clinical trials this year.