The press-and-breathe inhaler, also known as a Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI), is a pressurised device that propels the medicine into a patient’s lungs using a propellant spray. Using this technology, we created the familiar ’boot-shaped’ inhaler in 1969, as a treatment for asthma.
Over the subsequent decades, hundreds of our scientists and engineers continued to research and innovate, to create a series of dry powder inhalers (DPIs), including the Diskus™ inhaler.
In the early 2000s, as our respiratory pipeline of once-daily medicines started to enter late-stage clinical trials, our scientists and engineers began work designing one, single inhaler that would have the capability to deliver our entire range of once-daily medicines.
More than 200 scientists and engineers were involved in the research, design and manufacture of our Ellipta® inhaler, a dry powder inhaler (DPI). This inhaler was launched in 2013, as the common device for our new range of respiratory medicines. It allows one or two medicines to be taken via one inhaler.