Designed with only two injection-molded plastic parts, 8Shot offers an "economically viable solution" for drug delivery, according to Hovione Technology.

Daphne Allen

April 21, 2020

3 Min Read
8-Puff Dry-Powder Inhaler Wins Red Dot Product Design Award
Image of the 8Shot Dry Powder Inhaler courtesy of Hovione Technology

Hovione Technology’s 8Shot Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) has earned the Red Dot 2020 Product Design Award in the Healthcare Daily Living AIDS category.

João Ventura Fernandes, PhD, director of technology development and licensing for Hovione Technology Ltd., told MD+DI that 8Shot “was developed to be the world’s first 8-dose, factory-filled dry powder inhaler device enabling effective and safe drug delivery to the lungs of a range of drugs expected to be developed and reach the market during the next years." It is targeted for "delivery of new pharmaceutical compounds requiring very high doses, such as inhaled biologics, antibiotics, anti-virals, vaccines, pain, or rescue drugs for life-threatening conditions,” he said.

Fernandes explained that the “need for high-dose drug delivery to the lungs is emerging outside the established asthma and COPD drug pipeline, which have typically required the delivery of small drug amounts, in the order of 0.2 to 0.5 mg of therapeutic doses to patients by the current inhaler device technologies. In fact, many new drugs in development to treat patients with serious, life-threatening lung diseases such as lung infections—such as those arising from pneumonia—cystic fibrosis (CF), pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), or lung cancer are much less potent and thus require delivery of large lung doses, often within the range of 50 to 150 mg,” he continued.

New and effective delivery devices are needed to deliver such high doses of drugs to the lungs, he said. “8Shot provides the inhaler technology compatible with drug doses up to 400 mg, delivered safely and conveniently to these patients from multiple inhalations,” he said.

8Shot consists of only two injection-molded parts. “The fact that it only requires two plastic parts makes this inhaler into an economically viable innovation from acute to long-term inhaled treatments,” said Fernandes. “Following manufacturing, the device provides a patented mechanism for pre-filling the 8-unit doses into the inhaler in an assembled configuration. The filled device is then packaged in aluminium foil for protection from the external environment.”

Fernandes said that 8Shot was developed to be “a patient-friendly solution for daily high-dose delivery without the burden of instructing the patient to reload a device multiple times with a capsule or blister leading to a long, time-consuming, error-prone use sequence.” He explained that the patient “just turns a dose wheel to access the next dose. Its dose wheel is compatible with doses up to 400 mg, including drug-alone or particle-engineered formulations, and provides visual feedback to the patient that the inhalation maneuver has been successful. The large dose is delivered from multiple, sequential inhalation maneuvers for therapeutic benefit and safety.” The device was developed through iterations between product design, manufacturability, and assessment of human factors and usability, he said.

The Red Dot Design Award program recognizes high-quality product design, according to the press release. “The Red Dot jury’s experience and expertise evaluating outstanding product design and technical innovation for more than 60 years is unparalleled. This distinction awarded to our 8Shot DPI is a great success for Hovione Technology,” said Peter Villax, Hovione Technology’s CEO, in the release.

About the Author(s)

Daphne Allen

Daphne Allen is editor-in-chief of Design News. She previously served as editor-in-chief of MD+DI and of Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News and also served as an editor for Packaging Digest. Daphne has covered design, manufacturing, materials, packaging, labeling, and regulatory issues for more than 20 years. She has also presented on these topics in several webinars and conferences, most recently discussing design and engineering trends at IME West 2024 and leading an Industry ShopTalk discussion during the show on artificial intelligence.

Follow Daphne on X at @daphneallen and reach her at [email protected].

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