Dry powder inhaled compound delivery for early pre-clinical in vivo efficacy studies

Inhaled dry powders are the preferred route of delivery for many respiratory medicines. Toxicology studies are routinely carried out on inhaled dry powders whereas early pre-clinical in vivo efficacy studies often use aqueous formulations. Ideally evaluation of in- vivo efficacy, duration of action and DMPK of novel compounds, delivered as dry powders, should be carried out at an earlier stage in the drug development process. This would allow direct comparisons to be made with toxicology data to establish a therapeutic index and enable a more relevant prediction of clinical efficacy.