Washington, Oct 22 (Inditop.com) Smarter inhaler design will enable more effective drug delivery to the lungs by minimising waste.
Current designs deliver only 10 to 20 percent of asthma medications to the lungs. As the lungs provide direct entry into the bloodstream, an optimised design will reduce drug waste.
“We were able to optimise a prototype mouthpiece that allowed for more medication to pass through the mouthpiece and be available to reach the lungs,” said Michael Hindle, research associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
Hindle adds that this rational computational inhaler analysis and design approach, which was developed with Worth Longest from the School of Engineering at VCU, may be applicable for other inhalers and medications that require reproducible delivery.
“Insulin is an example of a drug that requires a reproducible delivery strategy that can be administered painlessly and as effectively through aerosol inhalers,” said Hindle, according to a VCU release.
The research will be presented in November at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Annual Meeting and Exposition.
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