Raquel Borda d’ Água1 & João Pereira2
1Hovione, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, Campus do Lumiar, Edifício R, 1649-038, Lisboa, Portugal
Summary
Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) have attracted enormous attention worldwide due to its local targeting, rapid drug effect and reduced systemic toxicity. However, DPI formulations consist of highly cohesive powders that tend to agglomerate. Therefore, fine and coarse carriers are often used to reduce the cohesion and promote the flowability and aerosolization. Understanding the role of cohesive-adhesive forces in different formulations and establishing a predictive approach for aerodynamic particle size distribution (aPSD) is thus, highly beneficial, since the traditional Next Generation Impactor (NGI) is a complex and time-consuming technique. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between powder dispersibility with the aerodynamic performance of different DPI formulations. For this, formulations with different ratios of drug substance/fine lactose/coarse lactose were tested using a laser diffraction technique (Sympatec HELOS/RODOS) and NGI. Sympatec was used to characterise powder dispersibility and inherent cohesion and adhesion forces at different pressures. The aerodynamic profile was characterized using an NGI at a pressure drop of 4kPa with a commercial inhaler. A correlation was evaluated between the powder dispersibility obtained using Sympatec and the aerodynamic properties from the NGI analysis.
Key Message
A simple and innovative solution was developed for faster DPI formulation screening.