Effective Treatment of Respiratory Disease

To challenge the current ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to inhaler design and manufacture, researchers at technology and product development company Sagentia, have released findings around the correlation between the effectiveness of dry powder inhalers (DPIs) and a person’s unique physiological characteristics, such as age and height. The research, being presented for the first time today at the annual Drug Delivery to the Lungs conference in Edinburgh, has important implications for the effective treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

DPIs rely on a ‘forced inspiratory manoeuvre’, or deep breath, by the patient in order to disperse the powdered drug and deliver a therapeutic aerosol to the lungs.  Sagentia’s data, obtained from a study of 90 healthy volunteers aged 4 to 50, revealed that the forced inspiratory manoeuvre of an adult produces three times the energy of that of a child.  More importantly, it was revealed that even a young child produces far more energy in a single breath than is required to disperse and aerosolise drug formulation in a DPI.  To illustrate the amount of excess energy produced, consider that only half of the energy provided in one forced inspiratory manoeuvre by a child would be required to accelerate a typical dose of drug formulation to a speed of 1,500 mph.  A healthy adult could accelerate the same dose to a velocity five times the speed of sound.