Aptar Pharma, a global solution provider of innovative and proven aerosol, injection and spray delivery systems for biotech, health care and pharma products, has partnered with China’s Shanghai Sine Promod Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.  to develop and launch its new budesonide DPI (dry powder inhaler), which uses Aptar Pharma’s novel, user-friendly and cost-effective twister dry powder inhaler.

The first drug product marketed with twister budesonide DPI is designed for maintenance therapy in the treatment of asthma.

Budesonide DPI is one of the first drug products manufactured locally and marketed in China. This cost-effective drug product incorporates Aptar Pharma’s Twister technology. It  contains an inhaled corticosteroid for the treatment of asthma in adults and children age six and over. The product is marketed in two versions, one version containing 30 capsules and the other, 60 capsules. Each capsule consists of 200µg of budesonide blended with lactose monohydrate as the carrier.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 235 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with over 30 million in China alone. Due mainly to population growth in Chinese cities, increased air pollution is becoming a major cause of respiratory diseases. The Chinese asthma and COPD market is growing rapidly, with a CAGR of 22.5% over the past five years.

Twister is a new capsule-based DPI, designed and developed by a multidisciplinary technical team based at Aptar Pharma’s Centre of Excellence in Le Vaudreuil, France to specifically address unmet medical needs in fast-growing markets. It has a  simple and robust design with few components, making it cost-effective for asthma and COPD treatments, and has been tested and validated with a number of different dry powder drug formulations. It is designed to be patient-friendly and easy to use, allowing easy access to their medication in three simple steps: insert, twist and inhale. In order to improve patient compliance with the prescribed treatment, Twister is transparent, allowing the capsule and powder to be seen in the device as they are administered.

Shanghai Sine Promod Pharmaceutical is one of Aptar Pharma’s key customers in China. “We are particularly proud to have supported their budesonide DPI programme through the development and commercialization of twister manufactured locally in our Suzhou facility. This is a very important milestone for Aptar Pharma China,” stated Yan Jiang, vice president Northeast Asia for Aptar Pharma.