Summary

This paper reviews the challenges and opportunities for the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to pulmonary drug delivery. CFD simulations allow the prediction of airflow patterns, particle tracks and deposition in model geometries of inhalation devices and regions of the respiratory tract. However, pharmaceutical companies often complain that CFD data did not bring conclusive answers. CFD is an additional engineering discipline that requires highly skilled, ‘dedicated-to-CFD-use ’ personnel. The inherent complexities of inhalation devices necessitate the continued development of advanced methods. Combinations of numerical tools are likely to provide valuable insight into these complex problems. Recent applications of modern CFD are now showing that this is a tool providing real benefits during the device and product development cycles, especially in a quality by design product development environment