Shorter time to market with a customized inhaler platform
In the next few years, the patents will expire for many best-selling inhaled medicines. As for other pharmaceuticals, there is a huge market for inhaled generic products, when patents expire. The business potential in complex generics is often unexplored due to development costs and lack of expertise.
There are different methods to administer a pharmaceutical, i.e. how to get the drug into the body. The method of choice depends on usability, onset of action, metabolism of the pharmaceutical and other factors.
Complex generics are, for example, complex drug device combinations where the patent for the original pharmaceutical has expired. When we talk about generics, one often means tablets or capsules that are easy to copy. The price of those generic tablets and capsules compared to the original product can be as low as one-fifth. For complex generics, the development process is much more challenging, resulting in fewer market entrants and thus a higher price in the market for the product, about 50-80% of the original pharmaceutical. This means an unexplored potential for profitable business in the complex generics sector.
If you work with generic inhalation products, you need a new inhaler that does not infringe on the original manufacturer’s patent, and that you formulate the drug substances so that they work together with the new inhaler. All these challenges make many companies hesitate to develop inhalation products. Iconovo supplies both our patented inhalers and our expertise to our customers.
Market approvals for inhaled drugs are based not only on the drug substance itself, but also on the inhaler’s ability to deliver the drug to the lung or airways in the right amount and with the right size of particles. Inhaled medicines can also contain several substances and it is then important that all medicines are delivered in the right quantity each time.
Read this white paper from Dr Orest Lastow, M.Sc. in Engineering Physics and a Licentiate of Engineering degree in Aerosol Science from Lund University and Ph.D. in electrohydrodynamic atomization from Brunel University. His expertise is device development, electrostatics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), aerosol science and inhalation technology.
Download white paper –
Why are inhalation devices so difficult to develop?
