Pneuma Respiratory Develops Digital Soft Mist Inhaler Device


US-based pharmaceutical firm Pneuma Respiratory has developed a fully digital, soft mist inhaler device designed to deliver a variety of medicines to the lungs.

The inhaler uses electronic breath actuation and a soft mist ejector, which can sense the breath and automatically activate upon inhalation by a patient.

The need for a propellant is eliminated as the ejector automatically delivers medication droplets into the lungs through the patient’s breath.

The device is accompanied by a mobile application that captures real-time dose verification data.

Pneuma Respiratory business development director James Bauler said: “It’s well documented that patients have problems adopting the correct inhaler technique and thus receiving the expected dose of medication both with dry powder and existing metered-dose inhalers.

“With a proven team of technology and healthcare leaders, Pneuma expects to make significant gains in pulmonary drug delivery.”

The inhaler has already been evaluated in two clinical studies by using bronchodilation as the outcome.

With a proven team of technology and healthcare leaders, Pneuma expects to make significant gains in pulmonary drug delivery.

According to the results, the device demonstrated effective delivery of medicines to the lungs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients who are using small-molecule asthma and COPD medications.

The device is also reported to have delivered large, complex, pharmacologically intact biologics during preclinical binding studies.

Pneuma Respiratory focuses on working towards new therapeutic treatments for lung diseases.

The firm holds experience in healthcare research and product development, along with handheld device design and manufacturing expertise.

The Humble Inhaler Goes Digital

People with respiratory conditions such as asthma will already be quite familiar with inhalers – and perhaps they don’t see any way in which the things could be improved. Nonetheless, North Carolina-based Pneuma Respiratory has developed what it states is the world’s first fully-digital soft mist inhaler. Among other things, it’s claimed to deliver medication more reliably.

With a regular inhaler, the user has to manually press the device’s release valve as they breathe in, drawing a mist of medication into their lungs. If they don’t time it right, they may not receive a full dose.

The digital inhaler senses when the user is inhaling, then automatically releases a mist via an electronic ejector. This is said to take the “guesswork” out of the process, ensuring that the medication gets fully delivered, plus no propellant is required.

Additionally, the device can be synced with the user’s smartphone, to keep a record of their treatment and thus verify that they haven’t missed any doses.

There’s no word on when the digital inhaler may be approved for widespread use – it’s currently still considered an investigational device.

Pneuma Respiratory Develops a Digitized Inhaler

Pneuma Respiratory, the North Carolina based start-up that is focused on treatments for lung conditions, has developed the first fully digital, soft mist inhaler. The inhaler electronically detects a user’s inhalation and automatically injects medication droplets into their lungs. This allows users to verify their dosage in real time via a mobile app. This technology has the potential to help the more than 40 million people who suffer from asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the US overcome issues with medication dosage. Pneuma Respiratory’s technology, which is able to deliver different sized droplets of medicine to different areas of the lungs could help the company disrupt the biologics market. For background, biologics are drugs produced from living organisms or contain components of living organisms and have the ability to target specific molecules within the human body — the global biologics market is anticipated to reach $400 billion by 2025, up from $277 billion in 2015, according to a new report by Grand View Research.