Liquid drug cartridges and associated dispenser

Inventors

Stedman, Benjamin • Fink, Jim • Molloy, Lisa • Sander, Matt

Assignees

Aerami Therapeutics Inc

Abstract

Liquid drug cartridges and an associated inhaler are used to deliver one more separate doses of an aerosolized liquid drug. A cartridge includes a container for storing the liquid drug, an end cap having an ejection opening, a filter element, and a piston that is repositionable relative to the container to selectively eject a volume of liquid drug from the ejection opening. The filter element filters the liquid drug prior to ejection from the ejection opening. The liquid drug cartridge can be coupled with an inhaler that includes an aerosol generator. The aerosol generator includes a vibratable membrane onto which the liquid drug is ejected. The liquid drug is aerosolized by the vibration of the membrane for inhalation by a user.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a liquid drug cartridge having a container configured to store a liquid drug and an end cap coupled with a first end of the container. The end cap includes an ejection opening from which a volume of the liquid drug can be selectively ejected, and a removable cap is configured to interface with the end cap so that the removable cap closes the ejection opening and blocks flow through the ejection opening while coupled with the end cap.

The cartridge positions a filter element between the container and the ejection opening to filter the liquid drug prior to ejection. A check valve disposed between the end cap and the container permits only one-way flow in an outward direction from the container to the ejection opening to block microbial ingress into the container from the ejection opening, and a solid piston extends an entire distance between opposing sidewalls of the container, seals a second end of the container spaced apart from the first end, and is repositionable relative to the container to selectively eject a volume of the liquid drug via the ejection opening.

An aerosolization system is also provided using an aerosol generator including a vibratable membrane having a front face and a rear face. A housing defines a mouthpiece with a receptacle that at least partially receives the liquid drug cartridge and positions the ejection opening to dispense liquid drug directly onto the rear face of the vibratable membrane, and an actuator repositions the piston of the liquid drug cartridge to dispense a dosage via the ejection opening onto the rear face to be aerosolized by controlled vibration.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes three independent claims. Across these independent claims, the coverage centers on selectively ejecting liquid drug through an end-cap ejection opening using a solid, repositionable piston, while filtering prior to ejection and mitigating microbial ingress via a one-way check valve; the aerosolization system further couples cartridge ejection directly to a vibratable membrane aerosol generator under actuator control.

The independent claims cover a liquid drug cartridge with an end cap ejection opening selectively closed by a removable cap, with a filter element upstream of ejection, and with a one-way check valve configured to block microbial ingress, together with a solid repositionable piston that seals and selectively ejects measured volumes; they also cover an aerosolization system that positions the cartridge ejection opening to dispense liquid onto the rear face of a vibratable membrane aerosol generator under actuator-controlled piston repositioning.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications

No documented applications found