Intertek publishes study on improving inhalation medicines with King’s College London

Intertek has announced the publication of a study on strategies for improving the effectiveness of inhalation medicines.

Dry powder inhalers (DPI) are increasingly popular products for delivering drugs to the lungs due to their ease of use by the patient, environmental sustainability and formulation stability. Historically, these devices have been relatively simple with limited optimisation, but continuing development is generating a variety of device platforms with different characteristics and targets with improved performance. Working with academics from King’s College London and The University of Parma, Italy, the Intertek team explored how the medicine’s formulation and properties of inhalation devices combine to impact performance, and investigated whether clinically effective formulations can be tailored to devices with different properties.

This study, which was published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics in July 2015, demonstrated how both formulation of the medicine and device factors affect product performance, highlighting that inhaler formulations must be co-optimised with the inhaler device during product development.

Mark Hammond, Pharmaceutical Services Leader, Intertek said: “Conducting studies such this is vital to pushing forward the evolution of inhalation technology as a means of delivering drug products and expanding the pharmaceutical industry’s understanding of how to develop more effective medicines.”

Intertek UK & Eire Chief Executive Rob van Dorp said: “Intertek has over 25 years of experience in analytical testing and formulation for the inhaled products behind treatments for asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and has built a reputation for providing outstanding customer service for challenging pharmaceutical developments programs.”