10094443Tuneable Nebuliser for Inhalation drug deliveryClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKAcu-Flow is unlocking the delivery of the next generation of inhaled drugs for patients with respiratory disorders. According to the World Health Organisation, respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD)) are the leading causes of death and disability in the world. In the UK, the British Lung Foundation estimates 1 in every 5 people will be affected by a lung disorder during their life with annual costs of £9.9bn to the NHS. To combat respiratory disorders in patients with poor lung function and acute disease exacerbation, 200 doses of drugs are nebulised each second, globally. Nebulisation is useful to deliver drugs directly to lungs and maximises drug delivery efficiency, while minimising systemic exposure. Different respiratory disorders require drug deposition at different depths within the pulmonary systems. Current nebulisers can achieve droplet sizes of 5-7µm, which are required for treatments within major bronchi (e.g. treatment of asthma/fungal diseases). However, for other diseases, the droplet size must be reduced (e.g. treatment of COPD requires 3-5µm and pulmonary hypertension/emphysema, <3µm). This IUK project will develop a new device with the ability to tune the droplet size (using software control of electronic functionalities in the transducer) enabling different droplet sizes of the drug formulation to be optimised to maximise treatment efficacy. To achieve this, we will partner with pharmaceutical companies to co-produce drug-device combinations of existing and hard-to-nebulise new drugs (e.g. biologics) to enable more effective drug delivery at the intended site in the lungs. The platform has already demonstrated its capability to nebulise a wide range of therapeutics using different (independent) prototype designs for each target, including existing drugs and emerging "high-value" biologics and nanomedicines. The device tunability now being proposed is a highly sought-after feature, as per our discussions with leading clinicians and key opinion leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. Our current InnovateUK Biomedical Catalyst (ending/Q1-2024) helped develop our initial prototypes and establish working relationships with leading pharmaceutical companies and identified a unique ability to tune droplet sizes. We now propose to create bespoke drug-device combinations by developing this tuning ability to target the correct region of the lungs for our partner pharmaceutical companies and lock their drug into our device. In future these drug-device combinations will be tested in clinical trials and following regulatory approval, will be available for patients for effective treatment of a wide array of respiratory disorders.