Several new products available at the exhibition, which continued during the second day of the meeting, supported that claim. Aptar was showing off its new Twister inhaler, which was launched earlier this year, and a small Swedish company called Simplified Solutions chose DDL 23 to introduce a prototype of its 8 mm-thick DPI, called the Xhaler. The device holds 50 doses of dry powder and can be operated with one hand.
A session titled “New Approaches to Pulmonary and Nasal Drug Delivery” followed Nichols’ presentation, with discussions about the delivery of drugs to the small airways in the first half of the session, including a presentation by Jan de Backer of FluidDA, who talked about his company’s method of imaging combined with CFD for the assessment of small airway diseases. The morning session concluded with several talks on nasal delivery, including David Vodak of Bend Research’s case study, “Development of a Nasal Virus-Like-Particle Vaccine Formulation Using a Spray Dry Process.”
The first session in the afternoon gave the finalists for the Pat Burnell New Investigator Award the opportunity to present their research from the podium. Each of the five young researchers, Freya Freestone of Chiesi, Martin Rowland of the University of Bath, Sara Jaffari of King’s College London, Hui Xin Ong of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, and Anne Lexmond of the University of Groningen, presented a clear, well organized talk with excellent visual aids, making the judges’ decision especially difficult.
