It is likely that two related but very different events during this coming year will form milestones in the history of aerosol therapy. One is likely to represent a genuine advance, ushering a new era in which aerosol delivery systems will be used to deliver potent systemically acting drugs via the lungs. The other will be the culmination of an enormously expensive exercise aimed at perpetuating inappropriate technology.

It seems probable that, during the later part of 2000, the FDA will grant a licence to deliver insulin as an aerosol. The most exciting aspect of this is that, for the first time in half a century, an aerosol delivery system has been developed specifically to fulfil a specific task.¹ The biggest market in North America for inhaled insulin is likely to be in the treatment of type II diabetes and, although the potential for significant adverse events related to swings in . . . [Full text of this article]