1nhaler, which makes a pop-up cardboard inhaler, has raised £2 million in follow-on funding to take its first product towards regulatory approval. Archangels led the round, with support from Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments. The money will pay for late-stage development of 1nhaler Salbutamol, the company's lead product.
1nhaler Salbutamol pairs the device with salbutamol, a well-established asthma medicine. Conventional inhalers are typically made from bulky plastic. 1nhaler's single-dose dry powder inhaler is made mostly from cardboard and is the size and shape of a credit card, then transforms into a three-dimensional inhaler for patient use. It has few components, including a patent-protected membrane-based system, so it is designed to be simpler and more affordable to manufacture at scale. The platform is designed to overcome limits in current options around accessibility, cost and environmental impact, and could also deliver dry powder medicines for pain relief and vaccines. Inhaled medicines already treat asthma, COPD, influenza, epilepsy, depression and Parkinson's, and inhalation delivers drugs to the lungs rapidly without needles. Grand View Research values the global inhalable drugs market at about £28.32 billion in 2026 and expects it to reach between £29.81 billion and £50.67 billion by 2033-35.
Don Smith and Lisa McMyn founded 1nhaler, which is based in Edinburgh. Its team has decades of experience taking inhaled products to market, including Chief Scientific Officer Helen Muirhead, former Head of GSK's Respiratory Centre of Excellence with development responsibility for the Diskus and Ellipta inhalers, and Chief Medical Officer Lars Larsson, formerly Medical Director, Licensing at AstraZeneca and Head of Clinical Research at Novartis. The funding will also let the team advance business development talks with parties interested in the 1nhaler platform and its lead product.
The funding will complete the technical transfer of 1nhaler Salbutamol into contract manufacturing, to make clinical trial material, and will pay for a small clinical trial to support a regulatory filing targeted for late 2027. It will also support a manufacturing engineering study with Harro Höfliger on scaling up the inhaler for commercial production.
This investment takes us to one of the most important milestones in our journey – taking our own lead product into the clinic. The continued backing of Archangels, Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments reflects the technical and commercial progress we have made over the past year.
Having backed 1nhaler since 2023, we see this latest round as a reflection of our confidence in the team and its novel inhaler device that has the potential to disrupt the global market for inhaled medicines. We are particularly excited by the commercial traction and interest from potential partners across a broader range of drugs than we initially anticipated, highlighting the platform’s versatility and market potential. Taking this product into a clinical study is a significant milestone towards demonstrating its performance in patients. Working alongside our co-investors, we look forward to supporting 1nhaler through its next stage of growth as it builds towards regulatory approval and commercialisation.
This investment highlights our dedication to supporting the growth of ambitious businesses in Scotland. By helping these companies scale, we aim to empower them to compete and lead in global markets. Scotland has distinct global strengths in industries such as human health and fostering the development of companies such as 1nhaler is key to sustaining their success and driving future growth.
