Craig Sommerville, senior vice president of the MDI Business Unit at Kindeva, discusses the drivers behind the industry-wide shift to NGPs with low global warming potential (GWP), the capabilities of the Loughborough site and the company’s continued commitment to MDI innovation.
Kindeva
For the first time in nearly thirty years, metered dose inhalers (MDIs) are undergoing a significant period of change as environmental pressures and evolving healthcare expectations redefine how the industry approaches propellants and device systems. For a company with Kindeva’s heritage in inhalation science, this moment represents both responsibility and opportunity. Kindeva’s Loughborough site, the company’s global MDI center of excellence, sits at the forefront of this transition. The facility brings together decades of aerosol expertise, advanced infrastructure and a commitment to sustainable innovation to help partners move to next-generation propellants (NGPs) while maintaining performance and continuity.
1. What is driving the shift toward more sustainable propellants for MDIs, and how is Kindeva helping to lead that transition?
Climate goals are now influencing how therapies are developed and supplied, which means MDIs must reduce their environmental footprint along with the rest of the healthcare industry. Regulatory frameworks that flow from the Kigali Amendment and updated F-gas legislation are phasing down high-GWP hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) propellants, while payers and health systems are under pressure to cut the carbon footprint of care. Meanwhile, millions of patients still rely on MDIs because they are familiar and easy to use. A blunt switch to alternative devices risks adherence, outcomes and cost.
For me, that combination makes moving established MDI systems to NGPs an urgent necessity rather than a distant aspiration. At Kindeva, we are leaning into that responsibility. We have invested early in infrastructure for low-GWP NGPs, such as HFA-152a and HFO-1234ze, and we treat the MDI as a complete system. By uniting formulation, device and manufacturing expertise at our Loughborough centre of excellence, we help partners lower the environmental impact of established products while protecting product performance and patient preference.
2. What services does Kindeva’s Loughborough site provide across the MDI lifecycle?
Loughborough is our global centre of excellence for MDI development and manufacturing, designed to bring the full development and manufacturing pathway together within a single coordinated capability. The facility combines advanced formulation laboratories, analytical suites with spray pattern and plume geometry testing, high‑speed filling lines and fully integrated component assembly and packaging.
We support both suspension and solution formulations, including programs with challenging particle size and stability requirements, and we build device considerations into development from the earliest feasibility work. The team can integrate valves, dose counters and actuators, then carry that same system through process development, scale up and commercial supply. We can run both cold and pressure fill for legacy propellants and low-GWP NGPs, which avoids costly tech transfer as products evolve.
Critically, Loughborough is also home to on-site Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) strategy and regulatory specialists with global registration experience, so partners get scientific depth and regulatory insight in one place from early development through lifecycle management.
3. How is the Loughborough facility uniquely equipped to support NGPs?
Moving to low-GWP propellants is not a simple line change, so we made a deliberate choice to build capability at an industrial scale. Loughborough was the first contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) site with commercial filling capacity for HFA-152a, and it now has infrastructure for both HFA-152a and HFO-1234ze.
Our filling areas are designed to accommodate the specific properties of HFA‑152a and HFO‑1234ze, supported by ATmosphères EXplosibles (ATEX)‑compliant equipment and dedicated storage systems. This purpose‑built setup allows us to manage these propellants efficiently and reliably at commercial scale, giving partners access to a fully established capability without the need for major internal investment.
On the performance side, we use technologies such as Spraytech and Oxford Lasers to characterise plume geometry and spray pattern, which are critical for demonstrating bioequivalence when reformulating existing products. These technical and infrastructure choices mean customers can access NGP capability without building their own facilities, while benefiting from our experience in the last major propellant transition.
4. Kindeva has a rich history in MDI innovation. How does that heritage shape your work today?
Our story in MDIs stretches back almost seventy years. Kindeva’s legacy includes the invention of the world’s first pressurised MDI in 1956 and leadership in the transition away from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which culminated in the first CFC-free salbutamol MDI in the mid-1990s. That earlier shift provided valuable insight about how formulation, device and manufacturing must move together if a propellant change is going to succeed at scale.
Many of the scientists and engineers at Loughborough have spent their careers optimising inhalation performance, so they understand the subtleties of aerosol behaviour, device wear, extractables and leachables, and how patients use and interact with the device.
Today, we apply that experience directly to NGPs. We know where programs can stall, which data packages regulators expect and how to preserve the performance characteristics that prescribers trust. Our history in MDIs is not a museum piece, it is a practical playbook for delivering more environmentally friendly products that still feel familiar to patients and clinicians.
5. Looking ahead, what role will Loughborough play in the future of sustainable respiratory care?
I believe Loughborough will remain a strategic hub for the next era of pMDIs, where sustainability and access must move together. The market for pulmonary therapies is growing, driven by rising respiratory disease, interest in systemic inhaled delivery and a sharper focus on adherence. At the same time, health systems want lower carbon options that do not compromise speed of relief or affordability.
With its integrated model, Loughborough gives innovators a practical route to achieving this balance. We can reformulate established products using NGPs, support new active ingredients and scale from pilot to full commercial volumes while maintaining a seamless and reliable supply chain.
The site also reflects our wider Manufacturing More Tomorrows philosophy through renewable energy sourcing, environmental certifications and strong community and safety records. As more companies choose to outsource MDIs so they can focus internal investment on other key areas, I see Loughborough acting as a trusted engine room, helping them deliver every breath more sustainably.