Dry Powder Inhaler With Unit-Dose Cartridges for Consistent Dosing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dry powder inhalers face challenges with inconsistent dosing, ruggedness, and patient compliance due to device inconvenience, limiting their practicality and effectiveness in delivering pharmaceuticals to the pulmonary circulation.
Innovation Solution
A dry powder inhaler system with reusable components, pre-metered unit dose cartridges, and a design that allows for easy cleaning, featuring a housing and mouthpiece assembly with adjustable airflow resistance and airflow distribution to ensure consistent delivery of pharmaceuticals, including peptides and proteins, through breath-activated mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If bulk containers are used to store powder formulation, then device complexity is reduced, but dosing reproducibility deteriorates due to difficulty in isolating single doses
Solution Approach 1:
The bulk powder formulation is segmented into individual unit dose compartments (blister packs), where each compartment contains a pre-measured single dose. This segmentation allows the device to maintain simplicity while ensuring dosing reproducibility, as each blister compartment is independently sealed and contains a precisely measured dose ready for immediate use.
2Measurement precision
If unit dose compartments like blister packs are used, then dosing reproducibility is improved, but device complexity increases and long term stability deteriorates due to foil seal degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the dosing function from the storage function by using separate unit dose blister packs that are loaded into the inhaler device. The blister packs handle precise dosing while the inhaler device handles delivery, allowing each component to be optimized independently. This extraction resolves the contradiction by maintaining dosing precision while simplifying the overall system architecture.
3Reliability
If conventional dry powder inhalers are used, then pulmonary drug delivery is achieved, but patient compliance deteriorates due to inconvenience and lack of ruggedness
Solution Approach 1:
The inhaler device incorporates dynamic elements including a movable dosing chamber that transitions between loaded and discharged states, and a flexible membrane system that responds to patient inhalation flow. These dynamic features enable the device to adapt to patient usage patterns while maintaining dosing accuracy, thereby improving ease of operation and patient compliance without compromising pulmonary drug delivery reliability.
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 provides consistent and reproducible delivery of pharmaceuticals, such as insulin and GLP-1, with improved patient compliance and ease of use, ensuring accurate dosing and efficient pulmonary absorption.
Implementation Method 1
Dry powder inhalers can be breath-activated to deliver drugs by converting drug particles in a carrier into a fine dry powder which is entrained into an airflow and inhaled by the patient.
Implementation Method 2
The system provides consistent and reproducible delivery of pharmaceuticals... by deagglomerating the powder formulation within a capsule.
Implementation Method 3
converting drug particles in a carrier into a fine dry powder which is entrained into an airflow and inhaled by the patient
Data Source
AI summary
Dry powder inhaler systems for pulmonary delivery of pharmaceuticals are disclosed.