Cambridge Healthcare Innovations (CHI), a start-up designing and licensing revolutionary inhaler technology, has announced Quattrii, the "first ever" dry powder inhaler (DPI) engine that is capable of delivering large volumes of biologic and mRNA molecules in a single inhalation.
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DPI Dry powder inhaler aerosol.
The engine will be available for pharmaceutical companies to start using in Phase 1 clinical trials from Q4 of this year.
Quattrii has been designed to transform the delivery of drugs for conditions that affect the lungs and airways – including lung cancer therapies – as well as systemic conditions where delivery to the lung is more advantageous, like pain management or Parkinson’s. Quattrii delivers at least 70% of the drug to lung with each inhalation, while existing inhalers typically only deliver between 10% and 50% of the drug directly to the lung.
In dry powder inhalers, the drug usually only makes up a small fraction of the formulation – most of it is an inert sugar (lactose), to make it easy to handle and fill in production. Usually, the patient inhales all of this extra powder, which lands in their mouth and throat. This can be unpleasant and cause cough, as well as other more serious side-effects when there is drug still attached to the lactose particles. Quattrii is unique in that it separates the active drug from the lactose, and retains the lactose fraction within the blister. As a result, the patient needs to inhale much less total powder to get their required dose, and more of the drug gets to the lungs.
Quattrii’s ability to retain the inert lactose means that a patient can inhale their whole active dose in one go. Alternatively, with a traditional inhaler, a high dose would need to be split across multiple inhalations, which each time results in large deposits in the mouth and throat.
As an example, Quattrii can be used to deliver novel therapies for the treatment of lung cancer. CHI’s DPI engine would enable patients who are eligible to inhale their treatment directly to the lungs. The benefit of this inhalation technology – in place of traditional intravenous chemotherapy and / or immunotherapy – is the reduced amount the patient must receive to get the required therapeutic effect, and the avoidance of typical side effects such as hair loss and nausea. This also means that patients can receive their dose within a few seconds, rather than over several hours.
“There is considerable worldwide research effort going into novel inhalable biologics and other large molecules, however, existing inhaler technology is just not designed to meet the challenges of delivering these potential blockbuster drugs to patients. CHI’s Quattrii DPI is truly unique and offers huge potential for those developing a wide range of drugs that can save the lives of millions of people”, said Dr Jenny Lam, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics at UCL and inhaled biologics expert.
Quattrii typically achieves a level of consistency in the delivered dose that exceeds current regulatory requirements of +/- 25% of label claim. This means these novel therapies have a much better chance of passing clinical trial, with a product that can then be used for in development.
Professor Omar Usmani, Professor of Respiratory Medicine and the Clinical Director of Respiratory Trials at ICRRU (Imperial College Respiratory Research Unit), said: “The respiratory delivery route offers so many advantages for the patient. Some of the new low-potency molecules under development will require inhaler technology that is more precise, more effective, and capable of delivering higher doses. I’m excited by CHI’s Quattrii inhaler platform as it addresses these issues and helps to open up the future of respiratory medicine.”