New Inhaler Devices - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Lavorini, Federico
Fontana, Giovanni A.
Usmani, Omar S.

^aDepartment of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy; ^bNational Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK

Published online: May 27, 2014

Federico Lavorini, MD, PhD

Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine

Careggi University Hospital, Largo Brambilla 3

IT-50134 Florence (Italy)

E-Mail [email protected]

Respiration 88(1):p 3-15, June 2014. | DOI: 10.1159/000363390

Abstract

Drug delivery to the lungs is an effective way of targeting inhaled therapeutic aerosols and treating obstructive airway diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the past 10 years, several new drugs for the management of asthma and COPD have been marketed and more are under development. These new therapeutic respiratory drugs have been furthered by innovations in all categories of pulmonary drug delivery systems to ensure optimal aerosolisation performance, consistency in efficacy and satisfactory patient adherence. In this review, we discuss the technological advances and innovations in recent inhaler devices and the evolving roles of pressurised metered-dose inhalers, dry powder inhalers and nebulisers, as well as their impact on patient adherence to treatment.