£2.2m · Other round · Healthtech · Edinburgh, UK
Edinburgh-based 1nhaler, which is developing a single-dose dry-powder inhaler made predominantly from cardboard, has raised £2.2m in follow-on funding. Archangels led the round, with Scottish Enterprise and BBB Investments participating. According to the company-issued announcement, the capital will fund technical transfer into contract manufacturing, clinical-trial material, a small clinical study and a manufacturing-engineering programme with Harro Höfliger.
Making the delivery device manufacturable
1nhaler's device is stored flat in a credit-card-sized format and opens into a three-dimensional inhaler when used. Its lead product combines the device with salbutamol, a widely used asthma medicine. The company says the design uses few parts and a patented membrane-based delivery system, aiming to make a single-use inhaler simpler and cheaper to manufacture than conventional plastic devices.
The commercial proposition is broader than selling one asthma product. A platform that can be paired with different dry-powder medicines could give pharmaceutical partners a compact, propellant-free delivery option without each customer building a device from scratch. That potential only becomes valuable once the inhaler can be produced consistently and generates clinical and regulatory evidence.
This round therefore sits at the difficult transition from an engineered prototype to a regulated product. Contract manufacturing must preserve dose performance at volume, while the clinical study has to produce evidence suitable for a filing targeted for late 2027. The planned work with Harro Höfliger matters because scale-up constraints discovered late can force redesigns, delay validation and weaken the economics promised to licensing partners.
A lead product can validate a wider platform
Starting with salbutamol gives 1nhaler a familiar active ingredient around which to test the device and manufacturing process. Success would not automatically prove every future drug-device combination, but it could establish the core inhaler, supply chain and regulatory pathway that later partners can build on.
The company also reports commercial interest across a broader range of medicines. The execution test is whether that interest converts into development or licensing partnerships while the team remains focused on bringing the lead product into the clinic. The £2.2m gives 1nhaler capital for that evidence-building stage rather than treating sustainability and portability claims as sufficient on their own.
