Inhaling drugs

A new optical instrument that could vastly reduce the amount of time the pharmaceutical industry spends in R&D, by speeding up the measurement of drug inhaler performance, is being launched by Loughborough University spin out VariDose Limited.

The product, VariDose, utilises custom-designed and state of the art opto-electronics and takes less than 60 seconds to run each test.

VariDose works by measuring the cloud of drug released from an inhaler as it passes through a tube intersected by co-planar beams of red, blue and infra-red light. Sensors are able to monitor the structure of the evolving drug cloud as the light passes through. Detailed analysis is then presented on a standard Windows enabled PC or laptop.

Results can be used to investigate essential cloud characteristics related to variability in particle size distribution, fine particle fraction and dose to pinpoint how design modifications could improve both drug and device effectiveness.