PUFF PLAN.

• Author: Marin, Cathy
• Position: STATE WIDE: West

For many people suffering from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, managing medication intake using traditional inhalers can be a challenge. Children and teens don't always communicate effectively with their parents regarding usage, and older adults and busy professionals might not remember when they took their last puff.

Pneuma Respiratory, a Boone-based business that was started in 2015 by Cree co-founder Eric Hunter, might have a solution. The biotechnology company has raised more than $18 million for the development of a digital inhaler that uses breath-activated technology to deliver precise droplets of medication and record flow rates so users know how much medicine they're taking in. It expects to start clinical trials in 2019.

"[The Pneumahaler] will only deliver the drug when you start to breathe in," enabling a high percentage of the dose to be delivered to the airways, President and Chief Medical Officer Steven Kesten says. Kesten, who joined the company in March, is a pulmonologist who was a faculty member at University of Toronto and previously was vice president of respiratory products at German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim.

The Bluetooth-enabled device doesn't require shaking or pushing a button while simultaneously taking a puff. Voice coaching can tell users how long to hold their breath after inhaling, and an LED dose counter keeps track of how much medicine is left. Dates and times can be downloaded to the device, providing more feedback for users.

While there have been incremental advances in inhaler technology, "There are no other devices trying to do what we've got in one solution," Kesten says.

The company said in July it had raised $8.3 million in a Series A...