A new
dry powder inhaler is developed as a pulmonary
medicine delivery device for dispersing precise tiny dosages (10 μg-50 mg) of pure carrier-free ultra-fine powdered medicament (<5 μm
aerodynamics particle size) into a patient's
lung. The
powder is drawn from the blister
cell and dispersed through an outlet tube assisted by two air streams. The first air
stream goes through a the blister
cell from its upstream side, to significantly fluidize the medicament in the
dose to flow upward. The second one extracts the fluidized
powder from downstream of the blister
cell for further deagglomeration and dispersion of the medicament
powder by
shear force. The rotating multi-
dose blister can hold up to 60 doses, which are pre-metered with pure ultra-fine powdered medicament. So that it has higher
drug loading capability in small volumes, compared to most current
dry powder inhalers, which usually use some
excipient. The
inhaler efficiently disperse the aerosolized medicament in the air
stream to the deep interior of patient's
lung. The fine
particle fraction (<4.7 μm) is reported to reach as high as 80% using this
inhaler.