In December 2009, Trimel acquired assets of Keldman Healthcare A/S, which was rebranded as TriVairTM. . TriVairTM is an award-winning single-use unit-dose dry powder inhalation drug delivery platform with applications for both nasal and pulmonary dosing. TriVairTM's patented drug delivery technology should provide significant potential benefits to improve patient outcomes for certain major respiratory disorders.
Pulmonary Delivery
Pulmonary delivery of medication is often achieved by way of two types of inhalers. Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) and Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs). MDIs, more commonly known as 'puffers', are designed to release a premeasured amount of medication into the air. In general, MDIs have a chamber that holds the medication and a propellant that turns the medication into a fine mist. A patient is required to push a button to force the medication out through the mouthpiece. This requires coordination by the patient of his/her inhalation with the actuation of the device and can be very problematic for both children and the elderly. DPIs are also designed to release a finite amount of medication but without the use of a chemical propellant to push the medication out of the inhaler. Instead, the medication is released by the patient inhaling a deep fast breath.
TriVairTM, through in vitro cascade impactor studies, demonstrated that it may provide patients suffering from pulmonary diseases with up to 2.5 times greater drug deposition in the lung as compared to metered dose inhalers. Greater lung deposition of medications should result in equal efficacy to currently marketed asthma medications with reduced drug load, which should result in improved safety. TriVairTM is also designed to provide patients and their caregivers with immediate visual feedback to ensure that the dose has been accurately administered. Its technology avoids the issues associated with inhalation and actuation timing and requires little more than a deep breath
Nasal Delivery
For the treatment of upper respiratory tract conditions, the act of simple exhalation into the TriVairTM device will cause the back of the throat to close, thus improving deposition of drug to the nasal cavity at the site of action.. Improving the delivery of medication to the nasal cavity will potentially reduce the negative side effects associated with other delivery mechanisms such as bad taste or smell, burning sensations in the throat and mouth as well as medication draining into the throat, with inadvertent delivery of medication into the throat and oral cavity. Moreover, since TriVairTM is a unit-dose dispenser, the risk of infection, a side effect that often occurs due to the intermittent or seasonal use of nasal products to treat allergies, is minimized.