Drug re-engineering is an effective method for engineering existing products in alternative dosage forms and with enhanced pharmacokinetics. Insulin for the management of diabetic symptoms is an ideal candidate for re-engineering. Current subcutaneous therapy results in low patient compliance and is ineffective in meeting the physiological need for post-prandial insulin. Implementation of dose titration for more efficient blood-glucose management is also inconvenient and uncomfortable. Inhaled insulin is presented as a superior alternative to current therapy. The lungs offer excellent access to the circulatory system. Aerosols suspended in inspired air may deposit on lung epithelia and be available for systemic absorption. To evade the defense mechanism of the human respiratory tract, particle sizes have traditionally been minimized to achieve necessary aerosol performance. Recent developments indicate that more efficient performance augmentation may also be achieved by decreasing the bulk density of powders and modifying surface characteristics. Light and fluffy powders with rough surfaces experience much higher drag forces within an airstream. The Atomized Rapid Injection for Solvent Extraction (ARISE) process is a unique precipitation platform devised by incorporating a rapid injection technique for energetic solution delivery into supercritical fluid (SCF) media to effect recovery of previously dissolved pharmaceutical compounds. The quasi-instantaneous delivery of solutions alleviates the drawbacks of the use of capillary nozzles or micro-orifices, gradual elution and mixing controlled precipitation kinetics in existing SCF precipitation techniques. Most importantly, the energetic release of solution into SCF media effects supersaturation over a much larger spatial volume and promotes the homogeneous precipitation of low bulk density powders. ARISE processed insulin powders displayed characteristics that were highly influenced by anti-solvent conditions and powders of different qualities were obtained as a function of anti-solvent pressures. At lower anti-solvent pressures, powders of narrow particle size distribution were achieved, an indication of homogeneous supersaturation levels within processing. Span, the index of size distribution was as low as 0.991. At higher anti-solvent pressures, supersaturation rates were increased while mixing efficiencies decreased, resulting in powders of wider size distribution, and powder bulk densities as low as 0.01 g/ml. Low bulk density insulin displayed in-vitro respirable fractions as high as 78%.

Drug re-engineering is an effective method for engineering existing products in alternative dosage forms and with enhanced pharmacokinetics. Insulin for the management of diabetic symptoms is an ideal candidate for re-engineering. Current subcutaneous therapy results in low patient compliance and is ineffective in meeting the physiological need for post-prandial insulin. Implementation of dose titration for more efficient blood-glucose management is also inconvenient and uncomfortable. Inhaled insulin is presented as a superior alternative to current therapy. The lungs offer excellent access to the circulatory system. Aerosols suspended in inspired air may deposit on lung epithelia and be available for systemic absorption. To evade the defense mechanism of the human respiratory tract, particle sizes have traditionally been minimized to achieve necessary aerosol performance. Recent developments indicate that more efficient performance augmentation may also be achieved by decreasing the bulk density of powders and modifying surface characteristics. Light and fluffy powders with rough surfaces experience much higher drag forces within an airstream. The Atomized Rapid Injection for Solvent Extraction (ARISE) process is a unique precipitation platform devised by incorporating a rapid injection technique for energetic solution delivery into supercritical fluid (SCF) media to effect recovery of previously dissolved pharmaceutical compounds. The quasi-instantaneous delivery of solutions alleviates the drawbacks of the use of capillary nozzles or micro-orifices, gradual elution and mixing controlled precipitation kinetics in existing SCF precipitation techniques. Most importantly, the energetic release of solution into SCF media effects supersaturation over a much larger spatial volume and promotes the homogeneous precipitation of low bulk density powders. ARISE processed insulin powders displayed characteristics that were highly influenced by anti-solvent conditions and powders of different qualities were obtained as a function of anti-solvent pressures. At lower anti-solvent pressures, powders of narrow particle size distribution were achieved, an indication of homogeneous supersaturation levels within processing. Span, the index of size distribution was as low as 0.991. At higher anti-solvent pressures, supersaturation rates were increased while mixing efficiencies decreased, resulting in powders of wider size distribution, and powder bulk densities as low as 0.01 g/ml. Low bulk density insulin displayed in-vitro respirable fractions as high as 78%.