Despite most delegates having partied past midnight at the previous night’s gala dinner, the 8:30 a.m. session on “Designing Devices for the Marketplace” Day 3 of RDD Europe 2013 was very well attended. Presentations in the session covered design issues for both patient and regulatory concerns, including discussions of the Asthmapolis monitoring system, the development history of the Genuair DPI to a phy, a physician’s perspective on patient needs, and a survey of concerns related to dealing with regulatory reviews of human factors for inhalers.
The device theme continued in the second and final session, “Optimizing Formulation and Device Partnerships,” where Oliver Denk of Pari described design considerations necessitated by formulation specific nebulizers; Rob Price discussed the behavior of cohesive/adhesive dry powder formulations; and David Lewis of Chiesi presented a method of predicting particle size distribution for HFA MDI solutions based on formulation composition.
A number of device companies at the technology exhibition took advantage of the fact that the exhibit remained open on the final day of the meeting, a first for RDD Europe, to continue showing off prototypes of new devices and dose counters. Aptar Pharma, co-sponsor of RDD Europe, was exhibiting a prototype electronic dose counter, as was Presspart. RPC Formatec displayed a prototype of its new Twist’n’hale dry powder inhaler, a multi-dose blister pack based DPI.
Co-organizer Richard Dalby commented that he felt that RDD Europe 2013 has been “fantastic” and “a great success,” with satisfying attendance and programming. Organizers are now looking toward future events, and the meeting concluded with reminders of the upcoming RDD meetings in China later this year, Puerto Rico in 2014, and Nice, France in 2015.
