New PillHaler® device with higher resistance for dry powder formulations

Valentina Trotta ¹, Juhura G. Almazi ²,  Hui X. Ong³,  Huaxin Wu ¹, Qi Wu ¹ & Daniela Traini³

¹HollyCon Italy Pte Ltd srl, via Danimarca 21, Gaggiano (MI), 20083, Italy

²Ab Initio Pharma, PTY, Ltd, 67-73 Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW, 2050, Sydney

³ Macquarie Medical School Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, & Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia

Summary

Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) are widely used to administer treatments for respiratory diseases for which the device represents one of the central factors affecting therapy’s success. The PillHaler® (HollyCon, Italy) is a single dose low resistance, disposable DPI for dry powder formulations. A new prototype device of the PillHaler® with higher resistance has been designed to increase the airflow resistance, enhancing the flexibility of this device to different types of formulations and its versatility for different treatments for lung diseases. To verify the device’s aerosol performance, a model formulation blend, based on Fluticasone Propionate and lactose carrier, was used. Data showed that the new PillHaler® prototype with higher resistance can improve the aerosol deposition of a dry powder formulation. Moreover, this new prototype has shown to be efficient at a low flow rate setting as well. Collectively, the obtained data further highlights the importance of selecting optimal device resistance for the rationale design of inhalable formulations.

Key Message

The PillHaler® with higher resistance DPI device has been shown to improve the PillHaler® aerosol performance, in terms of lung deposition for the active ingredient, for the model formulation blend (DPI formulation) tested.