Breath-Powered Dry Powder Inhaler with Sled Deagglomeration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dry powder inhalers face challenges such as lack of ruggedness, inconsistency in dosing, inconvenience, poor deagglomeration, and patient compliance due to issues like propellant use, air conduit variations, and poor manufacturing costs, limiting their effectiveness for pulmonary drug delivery in treating conditions like diabetes and obesity.
Innovation Solution
A dry powder inhalation system with a breath-powered, compact, reusable or disposable inhaler featuring airflow conduit pathways for effective delivery, incorporating a moveable mechanism to reconfigure cartridges from containment to dosing positions, and utilizing a sled or slide tray mechanism for efficient deagglomeration and dispersal of powder formulations, ensuring consistent and reproducible dosing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If propellants are used to deliver drugs as aerosols, then drug delivery effectiveness is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes propellants from the drug delivery system entirely, using breath-powered mechanisms instead to generate the necessary airflow for powder delivery. This extraction of the propellant component simplifies the device structure while maintaining effective drug delivery through breath-actuated airflow.
Solution Approach 2:
The inhalation system uses the patient's own breath to power the drug delivery mechanism. The breath-powered design allows the patient's inhalation action itself to generate the airflow needed to deliver the dry powder formulation, eliminating the need for external propellants or complex mechanical actuation systems.
2Reliability
If blisters are used to deliver medicament, then moisture protection is improved, but dosing consistency deteriorates due to air conduit variations
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates the moisture protection function (handled by the blister or sealed container) from the dosing delivery function (handled by the breath-powered airflow system). This segmentation allows each component to optimize its specific function without compromising the other, ensuring both moisture protection and dosing consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses standardized, pre-manufactured blister packs or sealed containers that are designed to work with the breath-powered inhalation system. These standardized units ensure consistent dosing by eliminating variations in air conduit architecture, as each unit is manufactured with precise specifications for powder containment and delivery.
3Manufacturing precision
If complete powder discharge is required, then dosing accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The breath-powered inhalation system is designed to deliver the required dose through partial discharge of the powder formulation. The system provides sufficient airflow to ensure complete delivery of the needed medication amount without requiring 100% discharge of all powder material, thereby simplifying the device design while maintaining dosing accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system achieves rapid and effective delivery of dry powder formulations to the pulmonary tract, ensuring high consistency and patient compliance by maximizing deagglomeration and delivery efficiency, with over 75% of the cartridge contents dispensed in a single inhalation maneuver, and maintaining lung function without reducing it.
Implementation Method 1
The patient's breath is used to fluidize, deagglomerate and aerosolize the dry powder formulation
Implementation Method 2
converting drug particles in a carrier into a fine dry powder which is entrained into an air flow and inhaled by the patient
Implementation Method 3
positive pressure relative to atmospheric pressure in air with propellants
Data Source
AI summary
A pulmonary drug delivery system is disclosed, including a breath-powered, dry powder inhaler, and a cartridge for delivering a dry powder formulation. The inhaler and cartridge can be provided with a drug delivery formulation comprising, for example, a diketopiperazine and an active ingredient, including, peptides and proteins such as insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 for the treatment of endocrine disease, for example, diabetes and/or obesity.