The “Pipes, Particles and Predictions: New Insights into Deposition” session also included several talks that emphasized the need to look beyond simplistic assumptions. Warren Finlay of the University of Alberta discussed “Prediction of Intersubject Variability of Extrathoracic Deposition in Adults in Children,” reviewing the causes of variability — differences in air flow, airway diameter, and airway shape — and stressing that “one throat is not a scale version of another throat.” And prompted by a recent letter to the editor by Dolovich et al in the Journal of Aerosol Medicine, Jeff Weers of Respira Therapeutics asked, “Is Aerodynamic Diameter a Good Metric for Understanding Regional Lung Deposition?”, which he acknowledged was “a pretty provocative question.”
Several speakers also addressed disruptions to traditional manufacturing methods for OINDPs, with Xiaofei Liu of the FDA addressing the audience via conference call from St. Louis, USA on the topic of “Supporting Inhalation Drug-Device Combination Product Quality Using 3D Printing Technology” and Eunice Costa of Hovione describing a system for “Continuous Processing: Challenging the Current Manufacturing Paradigm for Dry Powder Inhalers.”
The Posters on the Podium session featured talks by the authors of 5 posters selected by the RDD Europe committee to present their work to the audience. The selected presenters included:
- Mahdi Asgari, Philip Morris International, “Aerosol Evaluation and Deposition in the Human Upper Respiratory Tract”
- Sohan Sarangi, Uppsala University, “Numerical Modeling of Binary Collision of Adhesive Units”
- Diana Fernandes, Hovione, “Spray Drying of Inhalable Biopharmaceuticals of Increasing Size and 3D Structure Complexity: From 30 to 250 kDa”
- Hui Wang, University of Alberta, “Agitation Method Affects Colloidal Stability of Pharmaceutical Suspensions”
- Juergen Jauernig, Novartis, “Use of Biophysical Modeling to Develop Indacaterol/Glycopyrronium/Mometasone Furoate Inhaled Combination: Results from a Salt-Bridging Study of Indacaterol in Patients with Asthma”
The Posters on the Podium session was followed by the presentation of the 2019 VCU RDD Peter R. Byron Graduate Student Award to Hui Wang. The “Pete” award, which covers the winner’s travel expenses, is awarded for the best poster abstract submitted by a graduate student.
