The inhaled route is critical for the administration of drugs to treat patients suffering from
COPD, but there is still an unmet need for new and innovative
inhalers to address some limitations of existing products that do not make them suitable for many
COPD patients. The treatment of
COPD, currently limited to the use of
bronchodilators,
corticosteroids, and
antibiotics, requires a significant expansion of the therapeutic armamentarium that is closely linked to the widening of knowledge on the pathogenesis and evolution of
COPD. The great interest in the development of new drugs that may be able to interfere in the natural history of the disease is leading to the synthesis of numerous new molecules, of which however only a few have entered the stages of clinical development. On the other hand, further improvement of inhaled
drug delivery could be an interesting possibility because it targets the organ of interest directly, requires significantly less
drug to exert the pharmacological effect and, by lowering the amount of
drug needed, reduces the cost of
therapy. Unfortunately, however, the development of new inhaled drugs for use in
COPD is currently too slow.