Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Karen Davies

Robert F Eisele

Allan Cameron

Tim Kline

Nelson Holton

Ian Smith

Bernard Greenspan

Jeffrey Chen

Thomas Ryan Jackson

Clyde Witham

Greg Halus

Mike Ligotke

Jeff Chen

A drug powder inhaler has a cover plate pivotably attached to a lid on an inhaler housing. A lever is pivotably attached to the cover plate. A blister pack disk is rotatably mounted on the housing under the cover plate. A powder duct in the housing extends from a staging chamber underneath one end of the lever to an aerosolizing chamber. An actuator in the housing is pressed to shear open a blister on the blister pack disk and thereby deliver the drug dose contents of the blister into the staging chamber. A switch senses pressure in the mouthpiece and switches on a motor spinning an impeller within the aerosolizing chamber, when inhalation is detected.

Dry powder inhaler

A dry powder inhaler has a lid pivotally attached to an inhaler housing. A medicine containing cartridge is attached to the top of the housing and includes a cartridge ring with apertures for holding dry powdered medicine. A slide-groove assembly located on the underside of the lid advances the cartridge ring to a next aperture when a user first opens, then closes the lid. A venturi air passageway assembly is contained within the housing of the dry powdered inhaler. The venturi air passageway assembly includes a tapered inlet section, a throat section, and a tapered outlet section. A pressure switch is advantageously located within the housing for actuating the mixing process within the mixing chamber. During inhalation, the pressure switch contained within the housing actuates the motor driven impeller within the mixing chamber of the inhaler when the pressure within the venturi air passageway reaches a predetermined level. The pressure at which the pressure switch closes corresponds to a specifically calibrated inhalation flow rate.

A dry powder inhaler has a slider for incrementally advancing a blister disk, to provide successive doses of a dry powder pharmaceutical. A blister disk is rotatably supported on a spindle on a deck plate of the inhaler. A powder port, an advancing slot, and a lifter slot extend through the deck plate. A slider is attached to the deck plate and movable between open and closed positions. As the slider is opened, a litter moves up on a ramp on the slider to shear open a blister, so that the blister contents can be mixed with air and inhaled. As the slider is moved back to the closed position, the lifter is withdrawn and an advancing finger turns the disk to bring the next blister into position for opening to provide the next dose to the patient.

Blister disk

Blister pack disk

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Karen Davies