Aerosols in pharmaceutical product development

Abstract The rapid development in the pharmaceutical aerosol technology together with its various associated advantages has created massive attention among scientists and researchers for further development of this vital medical technology. Even though aerosolized dosage forms have countless benefits, several ecological and health apprehensions were also extensively reported. Therefore novel aerosols have been developed in recent years in the pursuit of improving the delivery of inhalational therapies as well as to overcome the limitations associated with other reported conventional therapeutic approaches. This chapter expounds a number of the important concepts regarding the inhalational therapeutics, the different mechanisms by which the aerosolized particles deposit in the target site of the airways along with the factors affecting their deposition. Other sections also focus on the existing containers, the manufacturing technologies as well as the diverse types of inhalers along with their distinctive characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. The principles of the quality control tests for aerosol are also discussed at sufficient length in this chapter. Further, the novel models developed to test the efficiency of deposition of the aerosolized formulations, in addition to the role of the next-generation impactor in the aerosol-based e-cigarette, have also been emphasized.