Electronic aerosol improves drug delivery

A novel technology that enables liquid medication to be inhaled through the lungs with up to 90% efficiency is set to be more widely commercialised for a range of liquid and dense suspension drugs.

A breakthrough technology that enables liquid medication to be inhaled through the lungs with as much as 90% efficiency and used in a recently launched medical device is set to be more widely commercialised for a range of liquid and dense suspension drugs.

Cambridge-based The Technology Partnership (TTP), Europe's leading independent technology development and licensing company, is working with a number of international companies to commercialise its electronic aerosol technology.

Called TouchSpray, this technology is the basis of the new eFlow electronic nebuliser revealed recently by Pari (based in Starnberg, Germany), a worldwide leader in efficient aerosol delivery and pharmaceutical formulation development.

TTP has also made a further breakthrough in its TouchSpray technology called "Reverse Taper TouchSpray", which enables fluids containing very dense suspensions of insoluble compounds to be administered using an inhaler device.

The TouchSpray technology has significant implications for the treatment of chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other similar conditions.

However, it also has implications beyond this that will allow pharmaceutical companies to deliver other more delicate compounds and formulations using the more convenient and comfortable inhalation route.

The technology is a breakthrough in that it enables a bioavailability as high as 90% of the inhaled medication delivered to the lung.

This compares with only 20-30% typically delivered using conventional metered dose inhaler (MDI) technology.

This significantly enhanced efficiency means physicians would be able to prescribe smaller doses of medication and for dramatically shorter treatment times.

An additional potential advantage is the reduction of unwanted side-effects that result from ingestion in the stomach or intestine.

The core of TTP's electronic aerosol technology is a vibrating perforated membrane.

More specifically, it is a low profile piezoelectric actuator incorporating a thin, perforated, stainless steel membrane - the membrane is manufactured using a patented micromachining technique to produce an array of precision, micron-sized nozzles.

The actuator is driven at ultrasonic frequencies which causes the membrane to vibrate, ejecting millions of precisely sized droplets each second.

This method provides an incredibly consistent droplet size.

The benefit to the pharmaceutical industry is that it provides very precise, consistent droplet distribution and therefore has the potential for atomising a wide range of fluids, including dense suspensions.

The device is ultrasonic, therefore silent in operation, and can be manufactured in a variety of different product formats.

Dr Andrew Sant of TTP commented on the significance: "For new drugs that cannot be administered as a pill, inhalation is by far the preferred delivery route".

"TouchSpray is a huge advance in that a number of new drugs, including those with large, fragile molecules, can now be delivered successfully via inhalation".

"TouchSpray aerosol technology will open up unrivalled new possibilities for the delivery of medication for respiratory and systemic conditions, as well as in atomising difficult suspension drugs".

Medicines in liquid form can be swallowed, injected or inhaled.

To ensure maximum bioavailability of the drug where it is needed, the intravenous injection is the best way to deliver medication.

The preferred alternative to using the needle, to which many people are averse, is inhalation.

But to date, the problem with inhalation has been the limited amount of drug that actually reaches its target - the inefficiency of the conventional metered-dose inhaler has meant that relatively large doses of the drug must be inhaled in order to ensure an adequate amount actually reached the lung.

The reason for this is that the delivery of medication using an inhaler requires low velocity droplets with a particle size between 1 and 10um.

If the droplet size were larger and/or high speed it would just impact the throat and, if it is smaller, it will simply not impact in the lung and be exhaled back out again.

In order to achieve this high level of accuracy to ensure delivery of the medication to the lung, TTP has spent several years developing the proprietary TouchSpray electronic aerosol technology.

This produces a controlled distribution of low velocity, accurately targeted droplets from an inexpensive device which does not require gaseous propellants - unlike conventional inhaler devices.

TTP has already licensed TouchSpray technology to Pari for electronic nebulisers.

Pari has launched the eFlow nebuliser, a product which is now available in the USA, and is involved in current clinical trials for asthma and CF medications exclusively delivered with eFlow.

TTP is extending the reach of this technology by licensing it to other companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

Discussions are underway with several large companies for new drug delivery applications.

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