This Month’s Focus: Product Development / Contract Testing
Initial considerations in the development of “repurposed” drugs for inhalation
“Repurposing” of oral or parenteral products to the inhaled form is a promising way to develop products for treatment of many serious diseases, particularly where the lung is the natural site of action or optimal delivery location. Factors such as target product profile, product quality, pharmacology and clinical strategy should be taken into account to help provide a repurposed inhaled medication that may be a valuable option for patients.
Inhalation of repurposed drugs: A promising strategy for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)
Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a rare, progressive disorder characterized by elevated blood pressure in and blockage of pulmonary arterioles, due to defective endothelial function and abnormal proliferation of the pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. Repurposing drugs for inhaled delivery can offer new treatment options and clinical trials have been completed or are underway. Further research is warranted to establish these repurposed, inhaled drugs for use alone or in combination with existing therapies.
General Features
Back Page: Electronic alert may help reduce excessive prescribing of short-acting asthma inhalers
A study presented at the virtual 2020 ERS Congress demonstrated “an automatic, electronic alert on general practitioners’ computer screens can help prevent excessive prescribing of short-acting beta2-agonist (SABA) inhalers.” The most important finding was the small but potentially clinically significant reduction in SABA prescribing in the 12 months after the alert. Combined with other results, this suggests the alert prompts a review of patients who may have poor asthma control.
Cross-Industry Organizations: The European Pharmaceutical Aerosol Group (EPAG): An update on recent activities”
EPAG is an advocacy group of pharmaceutical companies, support companies, academia and independent consultants. EPAG aims to generate data, collect scientific information and work with other advocacy groups. This allows EPAG to provide recommendations via its plenary and/or sub-groups for a range of applications such as new technologies, new methodologies and responses to draft guidelines. The article also discusses recent activities of EPAG’s nasal, dissolution and impactor sub-groups.
Previewing the RDD® Europe 2021 Virtual Conference
Due to COVID-19, Respiratory Drug Delivery (RDD®) Europe 2021 will be presented virtually, May 4-7, 2021, replacing the in-person event originally planned for the same dates in Nice (Antibes), France. For participants’ convenience, “knowledge spaces” arranged by scientific theme will merge curated speaker on-demand presentations, workshops, posters and exhibitor content into a single, online locations.
Previewing the 2021 ISAM Congress
The International Society for Aerosols in Medicine will host its 23rd International Congress in Boise, Idaho, US, May 22-26, 2021. The conference will include scientific sessions, posters, an exhibition and pre-conference workshops. In response to potential travel concerns, ISAM will stream and record content to allow all participants to experience the event.
April Content
Resolving misconceptions analyzing data from inhaler particle size distribution measurements
New perspectives on the microstructure of inhalable formulations through laboratory 3D X-ray microscopy
Back Page: The 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines
Cross-industry organizations: ISAM: 2020 highlights and a preview of the 2021 Congress
Issue Focuses
January: Reference and Buyer’s Resource
February: Product Development/ Contract Testing
April: Instruments
June: Nasal Delivery/Nebulizers
August: Particle Characterization
October: Devices
December: Quality/Compliance
Vicki Schuman
1155 Northland Drive
St. Paul, MN 55120
651-287-5600
Fax 651-287-5650
vschuman@cscpub.com
Inhalation Article Guidelines
Technical article requirements
The article should be technical and educational, but not promotional. It must be new, not previously published and must be at least 50% different from your previous articles or other articles you are simultaneously developing on the same subject.
All discussions of products or technologies must be in an unbiased, non-promotional, educational manner. If your article discusses products that have been commercialized or are in development, please be aware of the following: Inhalation takes a very limited approach in discussing products, usually listing only product name, delivered drug name and company name, unless a description is provided by the particular company that owns a product, such as in a case study article or product news release. In that way, each company can choose the information it wishes to discuss or disclose about its own products, rather than being discussed by an outside party with no ability to comment prior to publication. However, if an article is a case study, presentation of a novel technology or news article written by the owner company or its representative such as a scientist or consultant, we are happy to consider all information or data they wish to disclose, provided it is presented in a fair-balanced manner. Also, please avoid discussing product or development costs and do not make cost comparisons.
The article should be 2,500-3,500 words and must include at least five references or items for recommended reading.
We encourage images and/or data tables and have space for three or four of them. We’re flexible about that number so let us know if you need more image space. We also like to publish an additional photo or illustration at the beginning of the article. Images should be sent as separate files that meet the following specifications: high resolution, 300 dpi at a size of 7 x 7 inches and in only JPG, TIF or EPS formats.
Please be aware, due to copyrights, if you use figures or tables from articles that have been previously published in other journals, you must obtain permission from those journals in order to use the images. If you are an author on the published article in question, you may still need permission but there should be no fees from the other journal. If you are not an author and the other journal wants to charge you fees for usage, please contact us before proceeding. We do not want authors incurring costs in order to publish in Inhalation and there may be alternate approaches to citing information that could be used. Also, “open journals” do not charge for image use. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
Editorial board review and production
All of our articles are peer-reviewed and must be accepted by our editorial board or a designated reviewer in order to be published. When you send us the article, it will go to a member of the board and we will coordinate communication between you. Once an article is accepted, we handle production and you will see the final article in layout before it goes to print or is published in the digital edition.
Contract Testing
Excipients
