Dry powder inhalers (DPIs), opposed to the traditional pre-metered dose inhalers (MDIs), prove to be more advantageous in delivering the desired dosage of medication to the targeted site. Now, engineers are designing better DPIs and new carrier particles that have better characteristics for drug delivery.

INTRODUCTION Early dry powder inhalers (DPIs) were designed for low drug doses in asthma and COPD therapy. Nearly all concepts contained carrier-based formulations and lacked efficient dispersion principles. Therefore, particle engineering and powder processing are increasingly applied to achieve acceptable lung deposition with these poorly designed inhalers. Areas covered: The consequences of ...

BACKGROUND The identification of different (pseudo) polymorphs of an active pharmaceutical ingredient in dry powder formulations is of importance during development and entire product lifecycle, e.g., quality control. Whereas determination of polymorphic differences of pure substances is rather easy, in dry powder formulations, it is generally difficult and the difficulties increase particularl...

In a double-blind study beclomethasone dipropionate inhaled as a dry powder in doses of 100 microgram four times daily and 150 microgram four times daily was compared with the conventional aerosol dose of 100 microgram four times daily in 20 outpatients with chronic asthma. Each of the three treatments was given for four weeks. The dry powder in a dose of 150 microgram four times daily had adva...

BACKGROUND beta Agonists have been shown to increase mucociliary clearance in some studies but not all. Whether the formulation of beta agonists affects mucociliary clearance is not known but may be important as the use of dry powder inhalers increases. METHODS The effect of different methods of administration of inhaled terbutaline on mucociliary clearance and forced expiratory volume in one...