Inhaler

Abstract

A dry powder inhaler device (DPI) is disclosed. When a user activates the inhaler, the DPI is capable of delivering a dry powder dose directly from a medicament container, loaded into the DPI. A method is also disclosed for delivering a dry powder medicament dose directly from a container to a user of a DPI, whereby a sealing foil of the container is being slit open concurrently with aerosolizing and entraining of the powder in the dose into the inhaled air.

Description

REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority to Swedish patent application SE0401453-6 filed Jun. 7, 2004, incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates to a dry powder inhaler device for metered dry powder medicament doses, and particularly to a single dose inhaler. In a preferred embodiment the inhaler is one relying on a user providing a necessary action / force in order to deliver a selected dose made available in the inhaler. [0003] Additional advantages and other features of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the present invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims. As will be realized, the present invention is capable of other and differ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] The present invention, on the other hand, solves these problems. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a suitably designed dry powder inhaler device (DPI), a certain suction power must first be applied to a mouthpiece of the DPI, before e.g. a valve opens to let air into the appropriate air channel in the DPI and further into a suction nozzle connected to the mouthpiece. This ensures that a fairly high air speed begins to build up around the inlet aperture of the suction nozzle. A seal opening operation is released simultaneously with opening of the air valve, but there is an interval before the opener contacts and penetrates the seal at one end of the container. In a relative motion, opener vs. container, the seal is gradually slit open and simultaneously folded away. The suction nozzle follows the opener in its track, but before the suction nozzle reaches the nearest dose particles inside the container, the air speed into the inlet aperture of the suction nozzle has already accelerated to a high speed, sufficient to de-aggregate the powder aggregates that are accessed a moment later. Following the opener closely in its track the powder in the dose is gradually aerosolized and de-aggregated at the same time. Keeping the distance constant between the inlet aperture of the suction nozzle and the dose bed, i.e. the container bottom, ensures that the shearing power of the air stream going into the nozzle is evenly distributed and therefore used to its full potential in aerosolizing and de-aggregating all of the powder in the dose, regardless of where the powder is located on the dose bed of the container, presuming that the dose is in the area covered by the nozzle motion. Retention is minimized. The time period between exposing the dose to the atmosphere and delivering the dose to the airways of a user is clearly extremely short, normally only fractions of a second, ensuring that the dose is as unaffected as possible by the surrounding atmosphere, when inhaled.

Problems solved by technology

This is not acceptable from a medical point of view if the dosage can be detrimentally affected by being exposed to the environment inside or outside of the DPI.

Yet another drawback of prior art containers is that the stream of air sucked in to aerosolize the dose attacks all of the powder in the dose at the same time, so that the shearing power of the air stream is distributed over a large area where the dose is stored and the aggregates and particles in the dose are arbitrarily subjected to very different, uncontrolled shearing forces depending on how the powder and particle clusters in the dose are distributed relative the air stream.

Where holes are made in the container, e.g. a capsule or a blister, by a sharp, pointed tool or needle, edges of the broken container material will bend inwards towards the dose and the edges may then disturb the flow of air into the container, such that some parts of the dose are not properly aerosolized and de-aggregated.

In some cases all of the powder in the dose is not subjected to the same power of shearing stress because the airflow is unevenly distributed across or through the dose.

This tends to further hamper the delivered fine particle dose and raise the proportion of retained powder in the container.

Another problem is incident to aerosolizing a dose in a prior art container and that is that the speed of the aerosolizing air stream starts at zero when the aerosolization process begins.

The consequence is that most of the dose is quickly sucked up in aggregated form and the aggregates cannot then be completely de-aggregated during the transport through the air channel of the DPI before entering the airways of the user.

Because of these drawbacks a high degree of de-aggregation is difficult to achieve consistently, and the delivered fine particle dose is relatively small as a percentage of the metered dose.

The folded edges of the cut seal may be folded back in the original position by the DPI, which closes, at least partially, the container so that any powder retained in the container does not fall out into the mechanisms of the DPI or into an air channel, where the powder may affect the operation of the DPI or present a risk to the user.

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