An Irish researcher based at Trinity College Dublin’s Amber science centre has been awarded €600,000 in funding as part of an €8.8 million international project aimed at developing a first-of-its-kind inhaler for the treatment of lung disease.

The funding, which has been granted by the National Institutes of Health in the US, is to be used to develop a new dry powder inhaler that uses novel carbohydrate-based compounds for the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Prof Anne Marie Healy, an Amber investigator and head of the school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at Trinity, said the project was intended to take research from “the bench to the bedside”.

The funding is part of two large projects co-ordinated by Prof John Fahy from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and valued at $9.9 million (€8.8 million).

Usable products

“The project needed some formulation expertise to convert the chemical compounds into useable drug products, which is where my group comes in,” said Prof Healy.

“We have a lot of knowledge in this area for formulating pulmonary drug delivery and what we’re trying to do is optimise the delivery of these compounds down into the lungs to get maximum benefit and efficiency in terms of their use.”

Prof Healy said the inhaler would be particularly effective for use by patients with cystic fibrosis who produce thick, sticky mucus that can block airways and cause difficulties with breathing and infections in the lungs.

Medication to break up the mucus had been limited in effectiveness, whereas the new dry powder inhaler had the potential to greatly improve the respiratory function of patients, Prof Healy said.

She said the project would be of particular benefit to Irish citizens, given that Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis in the world and the fourth highest prevalence of asthma globally.

Clinical trials of the new inhaler are expected to start within the five-year project framework.

Prof Stefan Oscarson of UCD's school of chemistry and chemical biology is also a partner on the project.