Dry powder medicament inhaler

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12434018-B2
Application number	US-202217968921-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 19, 2022
Priority date	Sep 29, 2021
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed are dry powder inhalers for delivering medicament to a user from a blister pack, the blister pack having a plurality of spaced-apart blister pockets containing doses of the medicament. The inhalers comprise: a housing for accommodating unused and used portions of the blister pack together with a dispensing mechanism for selectively opening the blister pockets; and a manifold component through which air can be drawn in use of the inhaler. The manifold component comprises: a primary air inlet opening for receiving first external air; an air outlet opening for providing the external air from the primary air inlet opening into an opened blister pocket, the primary air inlet opening being fluidly connected to the air outlet opening by a primary air delivery conduit formed in the manifold component; a medicament inlet opening for receiving air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket, the air outlet opening and the medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the opened blister pocket; and a medicament outlet opening for delivery of the air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket to the user, the medicament inlet opening being fluidly connected to the medicament outlet opening by a medicament delivery conduit formed in the manifold component. The disclosed inhalers embodiments provide a variety of improvements to the design of the manifold component.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A dry powder inhaler for delivering medicament to a user from at least one blister pack, the at least one blister pack having a plurality of spaced-apart blister pockets containing doses of the medicament, the inhaler comprising:
a housing for accommodating unused and used portions of the at least one blister pack together with a dispensing mechanism for selectively opening the blister pockets; and
a manifold component through which air can be drawn in use of the inhaler, wherein the manifold component comprises:
an air inlet opening for receiving external air;
an air outlet opening for providing the external air from the air inlet opening into an opened blister pocket, the air inlet opening being fluidly connected to the air outlet opening by an air delivery conduit formed in the manifold component;
a medicament inlet opening for receiving air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket, the air outlet opening and the medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the opened blister pocket; and
a medicament outlet opening for delivery of the air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket to the user, the medicament inlet opening being fluidly connected to the medicament outlet opening by a medicament delivery conduit formed in the manifold component,

wherein the air outlet opening is arranged to be positioned substantially centrally over the opened blister pocket,
and wherein the medicament inlet opening is arranged to be positioned over the opened blister pocket so as to be closer to an edge of the opened blister pocket than the air outlet opening.

2. The dry powder inhaler according to claim 1 , wherein the medicament inlet opening at least partially surrounds the air outlet opening, optionally wherein the medicament inlet opening defines an angle of at least 180 degrees about the air outlet opening.

3. The dry powder inhaler according to claim 1 , wherein the air outlet opening has a circular or elongate shape and/or the medicament inlet opening has a curved or arcuate shape.

4. The dry powder inhaler according to claim 1 , wherein the medicament inlet opening is divided into a plurality of adjacent openings each arranged to be positioned over a peripheral region of the opened blister pocket.

5. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , wherein the manifold component, or a unitary moulded plastics component of the manifold component, is formed of a material selected from the group consisting of:
polyolefins, including polyethylene, in particular high density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene;
polyesters, including polyethylene terephthalate; polyamides, including nylons;
thermosetting polymers, including urea-formaldehyde, melamine, epoxy resms and polyimides; and
mixtures or copolymers thereof.

6. The dry powder inhaler of any preceding claim 1 , wherein the air inlet opening defines a sole point of entry for external air into the manifold component, and optionally into the dry powder inhaler.

7. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , wherein the dispensing mechanism is configured for opening at least two blister pockets of the plurality of spaced-apart blister pockets at a time, and wherein the manifold component further comprises a second air outlet opening for providing air to a second opened blister pocket and a second medicament inlet opening for receiving medicament from the second opened blister pocket, the second air outlet opening and the second medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the second opened blister pocket.

8. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the dispensing mechanism.

9. The dry powder inhaler according to claim 8 , wherein the dispensing mechanism comprises a peeling mechanism arranged to open the blister pockets by peeling a cover layer of the at least one blister pack from a base layer of the at least one blister pack.

10. The dry powder inhaler according to claim 8 , wherein the dispensing mechanism comprises an indexing mechanism arranged to move the at least one blister pack so that the opened blister pocket is aligned with the air outlet opening and the medicament inlet opening.

11. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the at least one blister pack comprises an elongate base layer defining the spaced-apart blister pockets containing the medicament doses, and a cover layer adhesively bonded to the base layer to close the blister pockets, and wherein the cover layer is arranged to be peeled from the base layer.

12. The dry powder inhaler of claim 11 , wherein the blister pockets contain medicaments selected from budesonide, formoterol, beclomethasone, fluticasone, salmeterol, albuterol, salbutamol, indacaterol, tiotropium, ipratropium, glycorpyrronium, umeclidinium, vilanterol, and combinations thereof.

13. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being budesonide and formoterol.

14. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being budesonide and albuterol.

15. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being beclomethasone and formoterol.

16. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being beclomethasone, formoterol and glycopyrronium.

17. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being indacaterol and glycopyrronium.

18. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being fluticasone and albuterol.

19. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being fluticasone and salmeterol.

20. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being fluticasone and vilanterol.

21. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being vilanterol and umeclidinium.

22. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicaments for simultaneous inhalation, the different medicaments being fluticasone, vilanterol and umeclidinium.

23. The dry powder inhaler of claim 1 , further comprising the at least one blister pack, wherein the blister pockets contain different medicamen

Assignees

• Norton Waterford Ltd

Inventors

• Crowley Peter John
• Hazenberg Jan Geert
• Buck Daniel
• Gottesman Josh

Classifications

• A61M15/0071

  having a display or indicator · CPC title

• A61M15/0021

  Mouthpieces therefor · CPC title

• A61M2202/064

  Powder · CPC title

• A61M15/0063

  Storages for pre-packed dosages · CPC title

• A61M2206/16

  Rotating swirling helical flow, e.g. by tangential inflows · CPC title