Designing DPIs
The Designing DPIs knowledge space was the most populated in the exhibition, with 22 companies identifying in that space. In addition, three of the supplier workshops pertained to the “Designing DPIs” knowledge space, including Catalent‘s presentation on “Development of High Dose Powders for Inhalation” and a Perlen Packaging workshop on microdosing of inhalation powders. Lonza Small Molecules presented a case study: “From Concept to Product: A Novel Dry Powder Treatment for Lung Cancer.”
Among the presentations in the DPI knowledge space was a talk by Bryce Beverlin II of Quench Medical titled “Targeting Lung Tumors Using a Novel Inhaled Excipient Enhanced Growth Gemcitabine Powder Formulation.” After describing formulation of the dry powder chemotherapeutic, Beverlin presented results from studies demonstrating that the inhaled gemcitabine was significantly more effective than IV gemcitabine, even at half the dose, in a rat model.
In the same session, Jeff Weers described a formulation strategy using respirable nanoleucine carriers with ciclesonide nanoparticles to create a monodisperse aerosol where the drug is designed to stay attached to the carrier during aerosolization. According to Weers, an in vitro study using the Idealized Child Throat with an NGI demonstrated that the formulation deposits almost exclusively on stages 4-6, with only just over 2% deposited in the throat and on stages 1 and 2. As a result, Weers suggests that such a formulation could offer the ability to significantly reduce the dose of inhaled corticosteroids for pediatric patients.
Aqueous Advances and Nasal Spotlight
The Aqueous Advances and Nasal Spotlight knowledge space sessions offered only two speakers each. in the Nasal Spotlight session, Charles G. Thiel award winner Günther Hochhaus presented a talk on “Evaluating Particle Size Differences of Suspension-Based Nasal Sprays Through In Vitro and Pharmacokinetic Approaches” and MedPharm offered a workshop on “DeRisking Pharmaceutical Nasal Development Programs.” Exhibitors in this area included Upperton, which recently launched a new nasal delivery development platform called UpperNose. Nanopharm, which had three posters in this area, and InnovaSystems also had tables in the Nasal Spotlight area.
In the Aqueous Advances session, John Pritchard gave his second talk of the conference, describing the surface acoustic wave (SAW) aerosolization technology in development at Nebu-Flow, which recently announced that it had raised £1.7 million for development of nebulizers based on SAW. There was only one workshop in this area: Recipharm‘s “Soft Mist Inhalers (SMIs): Addressing Unmet Needs In Inhaled Product Development.” Exhibitors in the Aqueous Advances area included Recipharm, PARI, and MSP.
