16 January 2003

New inhaler design set to challenge status quo of
multi-billion dollar market

• New MDI design delivers improved performance and 50%   increase in product lifetime

• Requires just six component parts but delivers increased  functionality

• Stops dose migration leading to less drug wastage and lower 'cost-per-dose'

Leading technology design and development company Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL) has developed a radical new design for the next generation of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs). The design includes a breath-actuation mechanism and dose counter, improves dose content uniformity, requires no drug wastage, and will be manufacturable for just half the cost of current breath-actuated MDIs.

Asthma, the most common disease treated by MDIs, is growing rapidly. In Europe, it affects one in twenty adults and one in ten children. Worryingly, the number of asthma sufferers in Europe has doubled in the past decade, and is set to grow a further 50% worldwide over the next ten years. Currently, approximately 600 million MDI units are sold worldwide each year.

The new CCL design overcomes three of the largest drawbacks with current inhalers:

Improved delivery of drug
Most MDIs require the patient to simultaneously activate the device and to breath-in at the same time. Research shows that three in every four patients fail to do this effectively, with the problem most acute in the young and the old. The new design incorporates a breath-actuation function to overcome this problem. Whilst two market leading devices incorporate breath-actuation, they require at least ten individual components to be assembled in manufacturing. The CCL design incorporates just six parts in total, making it significantly cheaper to manufacture.

Greater patient assurance and better treatment
As each MDI reaches the end of its lifecycle, the delivery of active drug rapidly tails off, with the typical patient 'float' or 'shake' test proving ineffective as a way of measuring active content. Reduced delivery of active drug becomes a severe problem for those who need to use the device when experiencing a severe attack, or for those who use it in a prophylactic fashion. 180,000 people still die from asthma each year.

To overcome these problems, CCL's design incorporates a dose counter, showing the patient how many doses they have left. This reduces the chance of the device being used with too little of the active drug remaining, and provides accurate information to help with re-ordering new devices.

Reduced wastage and greater dose uniformity
Due to the problem of drug migration, typical MDI users are instructed to waste the first dose each time they activate the device. CCL's design removes the problem of dose migration, delivering high dose content uniformity and increasing the treatments per device by 50%. This feature of the design makes the device highly cost effective when comparing drug delivered on a 'price per dose' basis.

Jon Tuckwell, a drug delivery expert at CCL commented, "Our design responds to a real market need in the face of both growing patient numbers and tougher regulation. Whilst many in the industry have tried to solve the most common problems through the use of complex engineering, we have taken the route of proposing a simple yet elegant solution. Our design offers significant cost savings with increased functionality and enhanced drug delivery capability."

Note to editors:
Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL) designs and develops innovative new products, processes and systems. CCL enables clients to turn business opportunities into commercial successes, whether launching first-to-market products, or expanding existing markets through the introduction of new technologies.
With a team of over 200 engineers and scientists, CCL is able to offer solutions across a diverse range of industries including healthcare, telecoms, industrial and consumer products, automotive and aerospace.

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