Elsevier

Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Volume 75, 30 August 2014, Pages 18-31
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Technological and practical challenges of dry powder inhalers and formulations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2014.04.004Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

In the 50 years following the introduction of the first dry powder inhaler to the market, several developments have occurred. Multiple-unit dose and multi-dose devices have been introduced, but first generation capsule inhalers are still widely used for new formulations. Many new particle engineering techniques have been developed and considerable effort has been put in understanding the mechanisms that control particle interaction and powder dispersion during inhalation. Yet, several misconceptions about optimal inhaler performance manage to survive in modern literature. It is, for example still widely believed that a flow rate independent fine particle fraction contributes to an inhalation performance independent therapy, that dry powder inhalers perform best at 4 kPa (or 60 L/min) and that a high resistance device cannot be operated correctly by patients with reduced lung function. Nevertheless, there seems to be a great future for dry powder inhalation. Many new areas of interest for dry powder inhalation are explored and with the assistance of new techniques like computational fluid dynamics and emerging particle engineering technologies, this is likely to result in a new generation of inhaler devices and formulations, that will enable the introduction of new therapies based on inhaled medicines.

Keywords

Adhesive mixture
Dispersion
Dry powder inhaler
Inhaler design
Pulmonary drug administration
Pulmonary formulation

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This review is part of the Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews theme issue on “Improving the efficacy of inhaled drugs for severe lung diseases: emerging pulmonary delivery strategies”.