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Dosing valves for inhalers

The classic inhaler that many asthma patients use is an aerosol can with gas pro­pel­lant and is tech­ni­cally known as a Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI). Bespak by Reci­pharm have been making valves for MDI cans for a con­sid­er­able number of years in their fac­tory in King’s Lynn, in Nor­folk, UK.

Each dosing valve must be pre­cisely matched to the require­ments of the indi­vidual cus­tomer and their phar­ma­ceu­tical formulation.

The Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) is a prime example of a device that looks simple to the final patient, but this is part of its ele­gance. The valve itself con­tains seven parts, including two soft seals and a spring. How­ever, also unknown to the end user, is the tech­nology and cus­tomi­sa­tion that goes into each format to suit indi­vidual cus­tomers and phar­ma­ceu­tical formulation’s require­ments. It has been so suc­cessful that, world­wide, almost one bil­lion cans are used every year. Sadly, global rates of res­pi­ra­tory dis­ease seem to be on the rise so there will, if any­thing, be even more asthma inhalers in future.

State of the art camera inspec­tion strategy

Orig­i­nally the valves were made man­u­ally on scatter boards by manual shaking. Later auto­matic assembly equip­ment was intro­duced and now Bespak by Reci­pharm have taken the next step with Harro ­Höfliger with a machine at a higher speed range, higher cleaning standards.

In November 2019 the teams of Bespak by Reci­pharm and Harro Höfliger met per­son­ally in Allmers­bach im Tal.

Addi­tion­ally, Harro ­Höfliger devel­oped and installed a state of the art camera inspec­tion strategy that is much more sophis­ti­cated than that pre­vi­ously in use. Finally, the machine has to cope with all the dif­ferent for­mats that dif­ferent drug for­mu­la­tions are likely to require. At the end of last year, the machine went into oper­a­tion in King’s Lynn – and is helping to ensure that patients all over the world can breathe freely.

About Bespak by Recipharm

Bespak by Reci­pharm delivers market leading design, devel­op­ment and man­u­fac­ture of drug delivery devices to the global phar­ma­ceu­tical market. This includes inhaler, nasal tech­nolo­gies and auto-injec­tors as well as devel­op­ment and man­u­fac­turing services.

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Photo: Helmar Lünig