Day 2 of DDL 22 started off with a focus on delivery devices, beginning with a talk by Professor Myrna Dolovich of McMaster University on selecting the correct device for patients and ending with a panel discussion between four “champions”: Stephen Stein of 3M championing MDIs, David Harris of Team Consulting championing DPIs, Philippe Rogueda of Monash University championing nebulizers, and Erica Haines of Education for Health championing patients.
Three other speakers described methods for optimizing inhaler design and/or use, including James Tibbatts of Concept Flow whose talk titled, “TappiWhacky and the Golden Device” examined the differences between detachment of fines from the carrier in a dry powder formulation and the deagglommeration of those fines. He explained that detachment requires high velocity impact — or “whacks” — while deagglommeration requires a series of “reasonably high velocity” impacts — or “taps” — and that an analysis of the “TappiWhacky” can help with assessment of device/formulation interactions.
The first afternoon session of the day consisted of presentations by the five finalists for the Pat Burnell New Investigator Award: Laura Marin of the University of Parma (“Multiple-dosing of Simvastatin Inhibits Mucus Production on the Calu-3 air interface model”), Johanna Salomon of Trinity College Dublin (“Drug transporters in the respiratory mucosa: in vitro studies on expression and interplay with β-receptor agonists”), Abdul Rauf of Hamdard University (“Development and In Vitro evaluation of Budesonide submicron drug particles: An approach to improve lungs deposition and dissolution for pulmonary delivery”), Eva Littringer of the Research Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering (“The influence of carrier shape and surface roughness of carrier based dry powder inhalates on the fine particle fraction”), and Helen O’Shea of Chiesi (“Rapid Method for Coating the Andersen Cascade Impactor”).
The day’s final session, said its co-chair Ben Forbes, would take the audience on “a journey through the respiratory tract,” with speakers addressing various regions of the airway, beginning with the upper airway and ending in the alveoli. The final three speakers all discussed lung imaging, bringing some of the issues from the ISAM workshop that preceded the conference to the main DDL audience.
During the evening drinks reception, DDL committee members announced the names of the poster, Pat Burnell award, and quiz prize winners. The industry poster prize went to Steve Gooding of SkyePharma for “Development of the manufacturing process for a novel formoterol/fluticasone combination HFA pMDI (Flutiform): Application of a Quality by Design (QbD) approach according to ICH Q8 principles,” and the academic poster prize was awarded to Anne Lexmond of the University of Groningen for “Dry powder formulation in the Twincer for bronchial challenge testing.”
Selecting the winner of the Pat Burnell award, said DDL Chair Georgina Fradley, was “heart-breakingly difficult,” with committee members agonizing over the decision. In the end, the committee decided to award the prize to Eva Littringer, who had also been a finalist for the award in 2010.
Quiz prize winners were also announced, and David Morton of Monash University claimed first place and an IPad. Charlotte Yates of Vectura and Kanika Jetmalani of the University of Sydney were runners-up; each won a Kindle.
