Paper Inhaler

Dry Powder Inhalers (DPI's) are proven to be an order of magnitude more sustainable than Pressurised Metered Dose Inhalers (pMDI’s), even with the new low Global Warming Potential (GWP) propellants, but when you open them up, there’s lots and lots of small plastic parts, it’s like a plastic analogue clock, and all that plastic ultimately get incinerated or goes to landfill.

So what if we tried to make an inhaler that didn't include any plastic? What other materials have a low GWP and easy to manufacture and recycle?

Early research showed that paper requires 25% of the energy to produce vs plastic, and it's a renewable material, and it posses little risk to the environment during its end of life cycle. But how do you make an inhaler from paper? So we started to research everything from origami techniques through to paper pump processing.

We finally selected a process called cold forming, whereby the paper could be pressed into shape to create a drug well and other structural features, and then is folded up to form the inhaler. We successfully showcased this at PharmaPack 2024.