Imaging specialist Dr Deborah Huck from Malvern Instruments will present a poster at Drug Delivery to the Lungs 22 (7-9 Dec, Edinburgh, Scotland) exploring how automated imaging can be used alongside cascade impaction to support the development of inhaled drug products. Hanne Kinnunen of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath (UK), will also reference work with the Morphologi G3-ID in her presentation ‘Effect of lactose fines on the de-agglomeration behaviour of dry powder inhaler formulations', on Friday 9 December.  

Dr Huck's poster will report on work performed with the Morphologi G3-ID system to examine the size and shape of the fractions delivered by cascade impaction.

Cascade impaction is used to measure the aerodynamic particle size distribution of the active ingredient of orally inhaled and nasal drug products (OINDPs). Normally material collected on each impactor stage is analyzed by HPLC to determine the amount of active present. This gives essential compositional data but no information about the morphology or structure of the particles present. The poster reports on this additional step and the extra insight the data provides.

Since the Morphologi G3-ID combines automated imaging with Raman spectroscopy, it offers further scope to add chemical identification to the particle size and shape data. It is anticipated that this additional information will in future provide new insight into the dispersion mechanisms occurring during drug delivery and support their improvement. 

For further information about the Morphologi G3-ID please go to: http://www.malvern.com/raman or visit the Malvern stand at DDL22.

Malvern, Malvern Instruments and Morphologi are registered trademarks of Malvern Instruments Ltd