Cambridge speeds inhaler performance testing

Cambridge Consultants, a development and business consultancy firm in the field of drug delivery, has recently launched one product and finalised the design of another in preparation for clinical trials in 2006.

The launched product, VariDose, is an optical instrument designed to speed up the measurement of drug inhaler performance by testing drug-device combinations at the development stage.

The instrument employs opto-electronics to perform tests in less than 60 seconds. It measures the cloud of drug released from an inhaler as it passes through a tube intersected by co-planar beams of red, blue and infra-red light. Sensors monitor the structure of the evolving drug cloud as the light passes through and this analysis can be used to investigate essential cloud characteristics related to variability in particle size distribution, fine particle fraction and dose, to pinpoint how design modifications could improve effectiveness.

The other product, a breath-actuated bi-directional multi-dose nasal delivery device, is being developed with Norwegian company OptiNose. Based upon OptiNose's existing nasal delivery technology, the device carries up to 120 doses and is actuated by exhaled air from the user, creating airflow which carries the spray droplets into the nose and beyond the nasal valve, allowing deposition of active substance to the middle meatus, the location of the entrance to the sinuses.