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Five recent developments involving inhalers

Recent research involving inhalers has focused on how reminders improved controller adherence and poor diets worsened their effectiveness. The European Commission has approved and the FDA has accepted a new drug application for multidose dry-powder inhalers.

Here are highlights of studies and actions presented in Healio Allergy/Immunology:

Inhaler reminders improved asthma controller adherence

Inhaler reminders substantially improved controller adherence when compared with training general practitioners in personalized adherence discussions for asthma patients, according to research presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Diego.

Juliet M. Foster

“Reminders and feedback are a low burden intervention for GPs [general practitioners] and patients, which is feasible and effective for improving controller adherence and exacerbation rates in asthma, even in socially disadvantaged populations,” Juliet M. Foster, PhD, research psychologist, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Australia, told Healio.com/Allergy. Read more

Poor diets worsened asthma, effectiveness of inhalers

Two abstracts presented at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand annual meeting suggest that diets high in fat and refined sugar could contribute to the prevalence of asthma, and that dietary fat may inhibit the effectiveness of ventolin inhalers.

Lisa G. Wood

In the first study, Lisa G. Wood, PhD, head of the nutrition program at the Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Diseases at the University of Newcastle in Australia, and colleagues considered the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), which recently has been developed and validated to assess the inflammatory potential of diets. In a second analysis, Wood and Mehra Haghi, PhD, of the University of Sydney, and colleagues studied dietary fat’s effectiveness of ventolin inhalers. Read more

Novel pocket-sized ultrasonic nebulizer device improved inhalers

Researchers from the department of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Irvine have developed a novel pocket-sized ultrasonic device for inhalation drug delivery.

The small nozzle requires low power, allowing for the battery-run pocket-sized ultrasonic nebulizer for asthma. Read more

European Commission approves DuoResp Spiromax for asthma, COPD

The European Commission has approved a multidose dry-powder inhaler for treating patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

DuoResp Spiromax (Teva Pharmaceutical Industries) contains budesonide, an inhaled corticosteroid and formoterol fumarate dihydrate, a rapid-acting and long-lasting beta-2-agonist for bronchoconstriction caused by asthma and COPD. Read more

FDA accepts NDA for breath-actuated dry-powder inhaler

The FDA has accepted Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ new drug application for its albuterol multidose dry-powder inhaler.

“If approved, albuterol MDPI would become the first breath-actuated dry-powder symptomatic and rescue inhaler available to asthma patients,” Tushar Shah, MD, senior vice president, Teva Global Respiratory Research and Development, said in a press release. Read more